Deutsche Telekom (DT) CEO Timotheus Hoettges (pictured) bullishly pointed to the company’s performance in the US and Europe during Q3, as continued declines in its enterprise IT unit T-Systems were offset by results elsewhere.

The company made a net profit of €817 million, down 40 per cent year-on-year largely due to a €500 million impairment charge at T-Systems, though it noted the adjusted figure excluding such “special factors” would have been up 6.3 per cent to €1.5 billion.

Revenue increased almost 32 per cent to €26.4 billion. It also raised its financial guidance for 2020.

Hoettges said the company was upping its annual earnings forecast on “strong business on both sides of the Atlantic” adding this was “despite feeling the effects” of the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic “in some areas”.

Gains
During its earnings call, the executive added its T-Mobile US operation had more customers than AT&T following the unit’s big-money merger with Sprint, and was now pursuing the medium-term target to “oust Verizon from the top spot”. He added “our aspiration is to be the leading provider. And we intend to stay there”.

In home market Germany, he noted its 5G rollout was ahead of schedule with a goal of covering two-thirds of the country’s population by the end of the year now in place. Its original milestone of 50 per cent coverage by end-December had already been exceeded by the end of Q3.

On its troubled T-Systems division, Hoettges said the transformation of this segment was “not progressing as we would like”, with new business “beset by delays and cancellations as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“This has negatively affected revenue and earnings. But strong growth in our other segments meant we were more than able to offset this at group level.”