Telefonica’s income rises in the first three months

TELEFONICA has seen its headline net income rise 20.6 per cent in the first three months of the year. The multinational company made €902 million world wide, but after excluding exceptional items from last year and this, net income was down 7.9 per cent. Sales fell 8.8 per cent to €14.142 billion.

For the first time Brazil became the company’s biggest market, despite a 9.5 per cent drop in sales to €3.26 billion. Meanwhile its European division saw a fall of 10.5 per cent in revenue, a drop the company blames on the economic crisis. The Spanish arm was particularly badly hit with operating revenues down 16.4 per cent.

Latin America as a whole accounted for more than half of Telefonica’s revenues for the second quarter in a row. At the end of March the company had debts of €51.809 billion, an increase of €550 million since the start of the year.

A devaluation of the Bolivar in Venezuela added €873 million to Telefonica’s debt pile.