Swisscom: revenue and profitability down in a market under pressure

news-single-imgcaption" style="width:240px">In basic activities in Switzerland, revenues fell 2.8% (Keystone)

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The telecoms group’s turnover fell 2.2% to 11.45 billion francs in 2019, “in a context of saturation of basic activities in Switzerland,” Swisscom said in a statement on Thursday. While Swisscom is struggling on the Swiss market, it has gained new customers with its Italian subsidiary.

In the basic activities in Switzerland, revenues fell 2.8% to 8.56 billion francs while they increased by 5.4% to 114 million euros in Italy with the Fastweb subsidiary.

In terms of profitability, operating income (Ebit) fell sharply by 7.7% to 1.91 billion francs. However, net profit increased by 9.7% to 1.67 billion, driven by non-recurring tax items.

The turnover recorded by the group is in line with its own projections and those of the analysts interviewed by AWP. On the other hand, Ebit came out below the 2 billion francs expected by the market, while net profit slightly exceeded analysts’ forecasts.

Swisscom, which wants to pay a stable dividend of 22 francs per share to its shareholders, expects in 2020 a further decline in sales to around 11.1 billion francs. (Awp)

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