Telia Company Backs Full-Year Guidance

By Dominic Chopping

STOCKHOLM--Telia Co. on Thursday company backed its full-year guidance after posting second-quarter adjusted earnings in line with forecasts as its telco business offset weakness in TV and media.

The Swedish telecommunications operator said its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--the company's preferred metric, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--rose 1.2% to 7.77 billion Swedish kronor ($756.2 million), compared with SEK7.68 billion expected in a FactSet poll.

The second-quarter net profit attributable to shareholders fell to SEK762 million from SEK1.52 billion a year earlier and compared to the SEK1.5 billion expected.

Revenue rose 4.5% to SEK23.3 billion, against SEK23.03 billion expected.

"TV and Media is...negatively impacting the group's financial performance as the current downturn in the advertising market is compounding the existing challenges in premium sports at a time of added cost from the ongoing business transformation," Chief Executive Allison Kirkby said.

"Our outlook for the full year remains, although with lower contribution from TV and Media we are more likely to be in the lower half of our SEK7-9 billion cash flow range."

Telia still expects like-for-like 2023 service revenue to grow by a low single digit, and adjusted Ebitda growth to be between flat and a low single digit percentage.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 20, 2023 02:18 ET (06:18 GMT)

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