Telefonica Net Loss Widens on Restructuring Costs — Update

By Najat Kantouar

Telefonica reported a widened net loss for last year's fourth quarter, mainly due to costs stemming from its restructuring program in Spain, though adjusted earnings rose after growth in its home market and in Brazil.

The Spanish telecommunications group said Tuesday that its net loss was 3.24 billion euros ($3.82 billion) compared with a loss of 1.0 billion euros for the same period a year earlier.

For the full year, Telefonica reported its biggest loss since 2002, when it was hit by the dot-com bubble. Its net loss for 2025 widened to 4.32 billion euros from 49 million euros, with a restructuring loss of 2.18 billion euros and other charges of 2.09 billion mainly related to impairments and amortizations in the second half of the year.

In December, Telefonica said it planned to cut around 5,000 jobs in its home market as part of its transformation program. At that time, it said it expected to book 2.5 billion euros in pretax costs, but that the move would save it around 600 million euros a year from 2028.

The company has moved to offload noncore assets in Latin America and to focus on its core operations in Spain, Brazil, Germany and the U.K.

The widened net loss also partly reflects impairments and losses on the disposal of assets in the quarter of around 255 million euros, including noncash goodwill impairments in Telefonica Tech and its Chilean subsidiary, Telefonica said.

Growth in Spain and Brazil helped boost revenue to 9.17 billion euros from 9.11 billion euros.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--one of the company's preferred metrics--increased to 3.20 billion euros from 3.13 billion euros. The corresponding margin was 34.9% compared with 34.4%.

Analysts had forecast revenue of 9.10 billion euros and adjusted Ebitda of 3.15 billion euros, according to a company-compiled consensus.

The board declared a dividend of 30 European cents a share, the same as a year earlier.

For 2026, Telefonica expects revenue growth of between 1.5% and 2.5% and adjusted Ebitda growth of between 1.5% and 2.5%. It anticipates a free cash flow of around 3.0 billion euros.

Shares were up 1.9% in European morning trading.

Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2026 03:59 ET (08:59 GMT)