Telefonica group, Europe's second biggest Operator announced that its net profit increased 30% higher year-on-year, reaching 5,787 million euros for the year ending 2015. The figure however, excludes a non-recurring impact of 2.602 million euros during the last quarter of the year, stemming especially from the provision related to the voluntary employment suspension plan for its Spanish operation. Taking into account the non-recurring one off payment, the operator's net profit decreased nearly 8.5% to 2,745 million euros year-on-year.
The operator which boasts strong presence in Spain, Germany, and Brazil records higher mobile data revenues which grew by 18.7% year-on-year in the last quarter and 16.9% for the whole year, representing 42% of its mobile service revenues. The rise is attributable to higher smartphone penetration and the growing weight of LTE customers, said Telefonica in its statement.
Another key highlight in its financial results release was the higher unitary usage of data traffic by LTE customers (63% higher vs. 3G customers) which translated into double-digit ARPU growth and also resulted in more efficient network usage.
César Alierta, executive chairman, Telefonica Group
If 2015 has been a very positive year, in 2016 growth and data monetisation will accelerate, while we maximize the efficiencies from integration and simplification, and we boost our innovation and big data capabilities.
