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Telefónica earnings surge
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September 1, 1999: 7:01 a.m. ET
Spanish telecom group's profit climbs 32% as mobile volumes soar
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Telefónica, Spain's largest telecom provider, posted a 31.7 percent rise in first-half profit Wednesday as strong domestic volumes and rising mobile revenues boosted growth.
The group, which derives more than a quarter of its revenues from Latin America, made a net profit of 776.6 million euros ($826 million).
Pretax profit jumped 80 percent to 1.37 billion euros, buoyed by an extraordinary gain of 962.5 million euros from asset sales, including its yellow pages listing unit floated in June.
Operating profit dipped 10 percent to 1.5 billion euros from 1.67 billion and sales increased 7.5 percent to 6.39 billion euros from 5.94 billion a year earlier, as the impact of tariff cuts in the deregulated Spanish market took hold.
The result was in line with expectations following a series of accounting changes, and Telefónica shares advanced 1.7 percent to 15.36 euros in a rising Madrid market.
The group last week announced that it would float its net unit, Telefónica Interactiva.
Telefónica denied last month that it was in talks with Europe's largest telecom provider, Deutsche Telekom (FDTE) about an alliance.
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Telefonica
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