Telecom Italia Q4 Earnings, Revenues Climb; Stock Up

(RTTNews) - Shares of Telecom Italia (TIAOF.PK, TI) were gaining in the morning trading in Italy after the telecom giant reported significant increase in fourth-quarter EBITDA, a key earnings metric, as well as revenues.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA for the fourth quarter totaled 2.14 billion euros, 54.6 percent higher than 1.38 billion euros in the same period of the previous year. In organic terms and net of non-recurring items, the growth amounted to 5.9 percent.

Domestic EBITDA climbed 64.8 percent from last year to 1.72 billion euros, and Brasile EBITDA grew 24.8 percent to 428 million euros.

EBITDA margin for the quarter increased 13.4 percentage points to 42 percent with strong growth in both regions.

The company's revenues for the fourth quarter 2016 totaled 5.10 billion euros, 5.3 percent higher than 4.84 billion euros last year. Organic revenue growth was 0.8 percent, reversing a negative trend that had persisted for 18 quarters, the company noted. The positive result was driven by the Domestic Business Unit, which grew by 2.7 percent in organic terms.

Domestic revenues were 3.98 billion euros, up 2.8 percent on reported basis. Of this, Wireline Domestic revenues increased 1.5 percent and Mobile Domestic revenues went up 4 percent. Brasile revenues climbed 20.1 percent.

Total number of domestic mobile lines dropped 1.3 percent to 29.62 million. Churn Rate was 6 percent, up 0.2 percentage points.

Telecom Italia shares were trading at 0.848 euro, up 3.60 percent.