By Telecom Lead Team: Mobile major Telecom Italia posted
7.9 percent decline in revenue, which stood at 238.2 million euro in 2011,
against 258.5 million euro in 2010.
EBITDA stood at 28.0 million euro, increased by 14.8
million euro compared to 13.2 million euro in 2010.
The company’s revenue for its Latin American subsidiary
climbed 8.7 percent to 29.96 billion euros.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization were 12.3 billion euros, compared with 11.4 billion euros a year
earlier.
To spur growth abroad, Telecom Italia’s Brazilian
unit Tim Participacoes SA (TIMP3) in July agreed to buy AES Atimus
Group to add network capacity in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Fourth-quarter organic Ebitda rose 3.3 percent to 3.1
billion euros.
Telecom Italia reduced its dividend payout for 2011
earnings as Italy’s biggest phone company focuses on cutting debt. The company
forecast stable earnings and revenue this year.
Telecom Italia’s board proposed dividends of about 900
million euros for 2011, down from 1.2 billion euros in 2010.
In light of the recent worsening of the macro
economic climate and the goal to maintain the credit rating, such a
dividend policy contributes to confirming the path towards debt reduction
outlined in the previous business plan,” the company said in a statement.
Telecom Italia and other former phone monopolies in
Europe, such as Spain’s Telefonica SA (TEF), are suffering in their home
markets because of weak economies amid the sovereign debt crisis.
Telecom Italia declined 2.4 percent this year before
today to 81.2 euro cents in Milan trading, compared with an 8.1 percent gain in
the benchmark FTSE MIB Index.
Telecom Italia said full-year profit before some items
climbed 7.3 percent, helped by growth in Latin America, and forecast broadly
stable” earnings and revenue this year.
Recently, Telecom Italia announced that it is launching public trials of new services based on
LTE 4G technology in Turin, Italy.
The company said that Turin people will be able to use
its ultra-broadband services by using the next-generation mobile network at
connection speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second.
