Royal KPN backs guidance after forecast-beating results

By Anthony O. Goriainoff

Royal KPN NV on Wednesday reported a rise in first-quarter net income and revenue, beating consensus, and backed its guidance for the year.

The Dutch telecommunications company made a quarterly net profit of 196 million euros ($215.1 million) compared with EUR179 million for the first quarter of 2022 and a company-compiled consensus of EUR165 million.

KPN's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, after leases--the company's preferred metric that strips out exceptional and other one-off items--fell to EUR584 million from EUR593 million the year before. The company said this was due to higher indirect costs, partly offset by higher service revenue and mitigating measures to absorb the effect of inflation.

Adjusted revenue for the quarter rose to EUR1.33 billion from EUR1.31 billion a year earlier. The company said this was mostly driven by growth in the business and consumer divisions.

Analysts had expected KPN to report adjusted Ebitda after leases of EUR584 million and adjusted revenue of EUR1.32 billion, according to consensus estimates provided by the company.

KPN said it expects to report adjusted Ebitda after leases for 2023 of around EUR2.41 billion, and that capital expenditure will be EUR1.2 billion with a free cashflow of around EUR870 million.

Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com

- Anthony O. Goriainoff

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04-26-23 0202ET

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