Telecom Italia Group 2018 Comparable EBITDA Down 1.0%; Revenues Down 3.6%

(RTTNews) - Telecom Italia Group reported that the net consolidated loss for 2018 attributable to owners of the parent amounted to 1.41 billion euros, reflecting in particular the impairment loss on goodwill. In comparable terms, excluding the overall impact of nonrecurring net expenses, consolidated net profit would have been a positive 1.4 billion euros approximately. Fiscal 2018 EBITDA was at 7.40 billion euros for 2018. Comparable EBITDA for 2018 totaled 7.71 billion euros, down 1.0% from prior year. Organic EBITDA, net of the non-recurring component, amounted to 8.12 billion euros compared to 8.40 billion euros, previous year.

Fiscal 2018 revenues were 18.94 billion euros. Comparable revenues were 19.11 billion euros, down by 3.6% from prior year. Organic change in consolidated revenues for the Group was up by 0.1%. Excluding nonrecurring items, organic group revenues reached 19.2 billion euros, up 0.5% from prior year.

For the fourth-quarter, comparable EBITDA amounted to 1.68 billion euros, up by 6.7 million euros compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 (up 10.9% net of FX). Comparable revenue was 4.89 billion euros, a drop of 5.0% (down 2.5% in organic terms).

TIM's Board approved, with two abstentions, the 2019-2021 Strategic Plan presented by CEO Luigi Gubitosi. The 2019-2021 plan financial targets: organic group service revenues to post low single digit decrease for 2019, while low single digit growth is targeted for both 2020 and 2021; organic group EBITDA is expected to decrease low single digit in 2019, while low single digit growth is targeted for both 2020 and 2021. The Group's adjusted net debt is targeted to fall to around 22 billion euros by 2021 before inorganic actions.

For TIM S.p.A., the loss for the year 2018 amounted to 1.85 billion euros compared to profit of 1.09 billion euros in 2017. The figure was adversely affected by the adoption of IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 for 105 million euros, as well as by non-recurring net expenses for 3.02 billion euros. On comparable basis, profit for the year would have amounted to around 1.3 billion euros, a drop of approximately 0.4 billion euros over 2017. Excluding the impact of the application of the new accounting standards, comparable EBITDA for 2018 totaled 5.88 billion euros compared to 5.80 billion euros in 2017, up 1.3%.

For TIM S.p.A., excluding the impact of the application of the new accounting standards, revenues for 2018 amounted to 14.05 billion euros, down 0.3% from 2017.