Telefónica repoerted 2018 revenues of €48,693m, up 2.4% organic (-6.4% reported) compared to a year earlier. In Q4, the growth rate accelerated to 3% y-o-y (-1.9% reported), reaching €12,917m. OIBDA reached €15,571m in 2018 and grew +3.5% y-o-y organic (-3.8% reported). Net debt fell for the 7th consecutive quarter and stood at €41,785m as of December 2018 (5.5% y-o-y reduction). Free cash flow excluding spectrum (€5,578m in January-December) rose 5.3% y-o-y.
José María Álvarez-Pallete, Executive Chairman, stated: "If I had to define this year 2018, I would define it as the year that passed the halfway mark in the transformation of Telefónica. Today I can assure you that Telefónica is closer to the company we want to be than to the company we were. Our solid set of fourth-quarter results reflected the improvement in business’ sustainability. Value customers and their average lifetime continued increasing, while both revenue and operating cash flow growth accelerated. In 2018, we regained customer relevance, resulting in the best-ever figure of customer satisfaction. We continued increasing the weight of high-growing revenues (broadband connectivity and services beyond connectivity) and investing in state-of-the-art technology networks. At the same time, we continued improving the Company's financial flexibility with a solid free cash flow, growing ex-spectrum, which enabled us to reduce net debt for the third consecutive year. And all this, notwithstanding the negative impact from regulation."
Highlights:
- Telefónica closed 2018 with 356.2m accesses
- LTE customers reached 117.4m, +20% y-o-y
- mobile contract accesses reached 123.8m, +7% y-o-y
- Smartphones reached 167.7 million, +6% y-o-y
- FTTx/cable accesses reached 13.2m, +21% y-o-y and represent already 61% of total fixed broadband accesses
- Pay TV accesses stood at 8.9m, +5% y-o-y The Group's FTTx/cable coverage at the end of December reached 82.7m premises passed (50.5m of own network, +14% y-o-y); 21.3m FTTH in Spain, 9.4m FTTx/cable in Hispam (+37% y-o-y) and 19.8m in Brazil
- more than 44% of our broadband customers enjoy connection speeds above 50 Mbps.
- LTE coverage reached 76% (+3.6 p.p. y-o-y; 94% in Europe and 70% in Latam)
- LTE traffic already accounted for 65% of total traffic.
Telefónica's guidance for 2019 (organic)
- Revenues: growing around 2%
- OIBDA: growing around 2%
- CapEx/Sales: around 15%
https://www.telefonica.com/en/web/press-office/-/telefonica-consolidates-its-transformation-process
