Swisscom: growing profit and revenue falls in first quarter

Swisscom in the first quarter of 2016 achieved net profit of 364 million francs, up 3.7% from a year earlier. The business volume of the largest Swiss telecommunications operator has instead contracted by 0.3%, to 2.885 billion.

The decline is explained by the reduction of tariffs, it says the biggest Swiss telecom operator said in a statement today.
"In light of the difficult market conditions, are satisfied with the business," says the chairman of the management Urs Schaeppi, quoted in a statement today. "The market is increasingly saturated and it becomes more difficult to gradually grow, for example in the mobile communications sector".
By rationalizing costs Swisscom – which is owned 51.0% by the federal government, according to the latest financial report – it has managed to improve gross operating income by 2.9% to 1.08 billion. The result before interest and taxes (EBIT) by 1.7% against to 535 million.

Despite the harsh defined competition from cable operators, the number of Swisscom TV connections rose within a year of 166,000 units (+ 13.8%), rising to 1.37 million. In this regard, in a conference call Schaeppi stressed that the success of the fund depends not solely by the offer of Swiss sports live, "would not be a catastrophe if we do not get over the broadcasting rights."

For 2016 Swisscom still expects net sales of more than 11.6 billion, EBITDA of around 4.2 billion investment to more than 2.3 billion. If the targets are met at the general meeting of 2017 it will be proposed to retain unchanged dividend for 2016 to 22 francs per share.