Telefónica’s revenues fall on currency factors

The devaluation of the Venezuelan bolivar and the sharp depreciation of the Argentinian peso caused Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica’s revenues to fall 8.4 percent in the first nine months of the year to 46.626 billion.

Adverse exchange rate factors also pushed Telefónica’s net income down by 9 percent to 3.145 billion euros.

However, in local currency terms, revenues from the group’s Latin American operations climbed but sales in Europe continued to decline, particularly in Spain, where they fell 12 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier and were down 14 percent in the first nine months of the year.

Total client access in the period climbed 2 percent to 320.3 million as of the end of September, boosted by its cellphone and pay-to-view television businesses.

The company highlighted the fact that its net financial debt in the third quarter fell by 3.7 billion euros as a result of assets sales and an increase in free cash flow, which increased in the third quarter from the previous three months.

Assets sales in the nine months brought in 103 million euros, including capital gains of 73 million from the offloading of its fixed-line business in Britain. In the nine months net financial debt fell 9.905 billion euros to 46.101 billion. Telefónica also recently agreed to sell control of its Telefónica Czech business to PPF for 2.5 billion euros.