BONN (dpa-AFX) - An unexpectedly large number of mobile customers in Germany opted for new Deutsche Telekom contracts at the beginning of the year. Under its own brand and after deducting terminations, the DAX-listed company convinced 281,000 new contract customers with its bundled offers in the first quarter, as it announced in Bonn on Thursday. The more valuable service revenue, for example with data, increased by 3.4 percent compared to the previous year. In both key figures, Telekom performed significantly better than analysts had expected on average.

At Group level, revenue for the three months to the end of March rose by 0.4% to just over EUR 27.9 billion due to a change in the marketing of end devices in the USA. Excluding exchange rate and portfolio effects, the increase amounted to 1.6 percent. Adjusted for special effects, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization including leasing costs (EBITDA AL) climbed by 5.1% thanks to efficiency measures. The bottom line was a profit of just under two billion euros after around 15.4 billion in the previous year - the decline is due to the one-off effect from the sale of the majority stake in the radio tower business in the same period of the previous year. The Group's profit figures also exceeded analyst estimates on average.

Despite the forecast increase for the subsidiary T-Mobile US, Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hottges unexpectedly maintained the annual targets. The manager aims to earn around 42.9 billion euros in day-to-day business and generate free cash flow of around 18.9 billion euros. Deutsche Telekom had reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization adjusted for special factors of just under EUR 40.5 billion and a cash inflow of EUR 16.1 billion for 2023. Adjusted for special effects, earnings per share (EPS) are expected to be more than 1.75 euros after 1.60 euros in the previous year./ngu/stk