Deutsche Telekom aims to return to rising subscriber numbers and earnings growth at it T-Mobile USA unit in the medium turn after a deal to sell it for $39 billion to peer AT&T fell through, the company's chief said on Thursday.
Chief Executive Rene Obermann said the company expects to invest around $4 billion, or an additional $1.4 billion in its U.S. networks in the coming two years.He added he expected T-Mobile USA's 2012 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) excluding special items to decline to around $4.8 billion from $5.3 billion last year.Revenue at T-Mobile USA dropped by 3.3 percent to $20.6 billion in 2011.Deutsche Telekom as a whole posted a fourth-quarter net loss of 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) as accounting charges on its activities in the United States and Greece failed to offset a cash payment for the collapsed T-Mobile USA deal.Analysts were looking for a fourth-quarter net profit of 1 billion euros.Deutsche Telekom stuck to its dividend policy and proposed a stable dividend of 0.70 euros per share."Goodwill impairment in the United States and impairments on goodwill and property, plant, and equipment in Southeastern Europe, notably Greece, of approximately 3.3 billion euros ... had a negative impact on unadjusted net profit," the company said in a statement. The impairment charges failed to offset a 2.3 billion euro cash payment from
AT&T [T Loading... ()
] as part of a $6 billion breakup package after the U.S. peer walked away from a $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA.By proposing an unchanged payout to investors, Deutsche Telekom bucked the trend at other European telecom operators, who have struggled to find growth amid intense regulatory pressure and tough price competition.On Wednesday,
France Telecom cut its dividends and put off a promised share buyback.Spain's
Telefonica trimmed dividends in December and is focusing on paying down debt, while Dutch operator KPN slashed its returns to shareholders via buybacks.The Bonn-based group said it expects 2012 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) excluding special items to reach around 18 billion euros with a free cash flow of about 6 billion euros.Analyst polled by Reuters are looking for an adjusted 2012 EBITDA of 18.4 billion euros, with individual estimates ranging from 18.1 billion to 18.9 billion euros.Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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Randall Stephenson, Chairman, President and CEO of AT&T, Inc.Opposition from federal antitrust regulators forced the Dallas-based phone company to give up on the $39 billion deal in December. That meant it had to hand over $4.2 billion in cash and spectrum rights to T-Mobile as a so-called "break-up fee" to compensate T-Mobile for the failure.Looking at that $4.2 billion charge, AT&T's [T Loading... ()