By Amir Orusov
(Reuters) -Telecoms group Swisscom reported a rise in nine-month core profit on Thursday, boosted by the Vodafone Italia acquisition it closed in January.
For the first nine months of the year, group core profit after lease expenses (EBITDAaL) rose 17.3% to 3.78 billion Swiss francs ($4.77 billion) from 3.22 billion francs a year earlier.
The third-quarter EBITDAaL came in at 1.3 billion francs, beating consensus expectations of 1.27 billion, partly due to efficiency measures and cost savings in its business in Switzerland.
CEO Christoph Aeschlimann said during a conference call that mood among Swiss business-to-business firms is “a bit damped,” citing the impact of U.S. tariffs on export-oriented companies.
“It’s not that bad, but it’s not helping us create more growth on the IT side, as many companies are now scaling back on their investment envelopes,” Aeschlimann added.
The group revenue in the quarter was 3.73 billion francs, slightly below consensus expectations of 3.74 billion francs.
Swisscom confirmed full-year guidance for revenue at the lower end of 15.0 billion-15.2 billion francs range and for EBITDAaL of around 5 billion francs.
The company’s shares rose 2% to the top of Swiss blue-chip index at 0945 GMT.
($1 = 0.7931 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Amir Orusov; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Eileen Soreng)
