Growth in its Latin American mobile businesses helped Spanish-based operator Telefonica report a 9.8 percent rise in first-quarter net profit to EUR1.69 billion. Revenue for the quarter stood at EUR13.7 billion, down 1.4 percent compared to the year earlier quarter, mainly as a result of the negative exchange rate effect, which reduced growth by 4.7 percentage points. However, revenue grew by 2.8 percent on an organic basis. The operator’s total customer base grew 11.9 percent to 261.3 million, which included 198 million mobile subscribers. It added 2.4 million mobile customers (net) in the quarter. The main drivers of these net adds were Brazil (0.7 million), Germany (0.3 million), Mexico (0.2 million) and Argentina (0.2 million). The company reiterated its 2009 guidance for all metrics.

In its Latin America markets, Telefonica said it had a total of 124.7 million mobile lines, a year-on-year increase of 20.2 percent (15.8 percent in organic terms), with solid growth at its mobile operations in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela. At its European unit (which excludes Spain) the operator reached a total mobile customer base of 41.9 million (up 7.7 percent year-on-year), reporting net additions of 453,679 for the quarter. Mobile customers in Spain rose 2.6 percent to 23.6 million.