By Anastasiia Kozlova
(Reuters) -Telecom firm Swisscom on Thursday reported fourth-quarter results below market expectations, hurt by weakness in its core Swiss business and costs related to the acquisition of Vodafone Italia.
Its stock was 4.2% lower at 0942 GMT, on track for its worst day since October.
Quarterly revenue in the Swiss company’s domestic business fell by 1.9% due to price erosion, and lower broadband and fixed-line telephone connections, while its Italian business Fastweb’s sales rose 7.8% year-on-year, helped by a growing customer base.
The group’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at 917 million Swiss francs ($1.01 billion) in the fourth quarter, missing company-compiled consensus expectations by 3.6%.
UBS analysts called Swisscom’s fourth-quarter results “disappointing”.
For 2025, the company expects revenue of between 15 billion and 15.2 billion Swiss francs, with earnings before depreciation and amortisation after lease expense (EBITDAaL) of around 5 billion francs.
Swisscom also said it plans to increase its dividend to 26 francs per share for the financial year 2025.
VODAFONE ITALIA AND FASTWEB
Last month, the company completed its acquisition of competitor Vodafone Italia, which it will merge with its Italian business Fastweb.
Swisscom incurred acquisition costs of up to 200 million euros.
The deal will create Italy’s second-biggest fixed-line broadband operator behind Telekom Italia (TIM), with a strong presence in the telecommunication business segment and will be a leading player in the mobile division. Fastweb posted an increase in customers last year, with revenue from both business and wholesale customers advancing despite sluggish broadband demand in the highly competitive telecommunications sector.
($1 = 0.9079 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Anastasiia Kozlova in Gdansk, additional reporting by Amir Orusov; Editing by Savio D’Souza, Sonia Cheema and Devika Syamnath)
