Telecommunic-ations company Swisscom said on Wednesday that second-quarter net profit matched its results from a year earlier and raised its forecasts for the full year. Swisscom posted second-quarter profit of 433 million Swiss francs ($443.4 million), little changed from 430 million a year earlier and above the 417 million francs expected by analysts.
Shares in Swisscom were down 1.6 percent at 556.50 francs at 0815 GMT, more than double the fall of the European telecom sector index, with some analysts saying sales in the second quarter had disappointed. Second-quarter net revenue came in at 2.87 billion francs, a shade lower than the average analyst forecast of 2.88 billion. Chief Executive Urs Schaeppi said Swisscom had posted solid results despite price cuts for roaming services, currency impacts and strong competition. He said Swisscom gained "a large number of new customers" with Swisscom TV and bundled contracts.
Swisscom, whose Fastwire division operates in Italy, is among companies in the Alpine nation whose results have been dented by the Swiss franc's gains against the euro since the central bank abandoned its currency cap in January. With the franc's nearly 4 percent decline against the euro since mid July, however, Swisscom upgraded full-year forecasts, saying revenue, core profits (EBITDA) and capital expenditures would now be somewhat higher than previous forecasts.
It now expects net revenue of more than 11.5 billion francs, up from more than 11.4 billion previously and said EBITDA would be in excess of the previous forecast for 4.2 billion francs. Capital expenditure was also now expected to top the previous forecast of 2.3 billion francs, the company said.