ZURICH: Swiss telecommunication services firm Swisscom AG reported that its fiscal 2016 net income rose 17.8% to 1.60 billion Swiss francs from last year’s 1.36 billion francs, largely due to non-recurring items.
According to details, Swisscom increased its consolidated operating income before depreciation and amortisation or EBITDA by 4.8% to 4.29 billion francs, while adjusted EBITDA fell 1.2%. Consolidated net revenue edged down 0.3 percent to 11.643 billion francs from 11.678 billion francs a year ago.
In the Swiss core business, revenue fell 1.1% to 9.44 billion francs, primarily as a result of falling revenue from telecommunications services and included roaming services.
Further, the company said payment of an unchanged dividend of 22 francs per share will be proposed to the Annual General Meeting.
Looking ahead, for 2017, Swisscom expects a net revenue of around 11.6 billion francs, EBITDA of around 4.2 billion francs and capital expenditure of around 2.4 billion francs.
CEO Urs Schaeppi, said, “For 2017 I am expecting a continued high level of pressure on prices. … We will be investing around CHF 1.75 billion in Switzerland, more than CHF 500 million of which will be going to the expansion of our fibre-optic networks.”
The company also said by the end of 2017, it expects to have a headcount of around 17,900 FTEs in Switzerland, around 500 fewer than at the end of 2016.
