Royal KPN NV. Wednesday said net profit for the second quarter
more than doubled, boosted by a EUR451 million ($605.58 million)
release of a provision related to the pension plan agreement in the
Netherlands, and said it expects its performance to stabilize
toward the rest of the year.
The Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company based
in The Hague made a net profit of EUR349 million for the quarter
ended June 30, compared with EUR162 million a year earlier, on
revenue of EUR2.0 billion and EUR2.16 billion respectively.
Stripping out the provision, it made a net loss of EUR12
million.
The fall in revenue was due to competitive mobile markets, and a
continuing fall of the business market size, KPN said.
"Driven by the good strategic progress, including high customer
additions in mobile and IPTV, and the execution of the
Simplification program, we are witnessing a quarter-on-quarter
financial improvement and remain on track for stabilizing financial
performance toward the end of this year," Chief Executive Officer
Eelco Blok said.
He reiterated that the group plans to restart paying dividends
this year after the sale of E-Plus. KPN is in the final stages of
merging its German E-Plus business with that of Spain's Telefonica
SA to ease its debt burden and enable it to resume paying a
dividend. The deal, which received approval from European Union
antitrust authorities earlier this month, comes as Europe's
fragmented telecoms sector is undergoing a wave of
consolidation.
In April KPN said it would pay a dividend for 2014 of EUR0.07,
subject the E-Plus sale completing. The dividend payout structure
will consist of 1/3 interim dividend planned in August 2014 and the
rest in April 2015.
Last week KPN appointed Jan Kees de Jager as chief financial
officer from Nov. 1, replacing Steven van Schilfgaarde, who has
been interim CFO since September 2013.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com
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