Telefonica reported a net loss for the third quarter of 2011, resulting from restructuring costs in its troubled Spanish business. Due to ongoing economic uncertainty in the Eurozone, Bloomberg reported that analysts see continued pressure for this unit.

In line with the results, the company reiterated its guidance for 2011 and confirmed its shareholder remuneration policy. According to Reuters, one analyst described the fact that it had not trimmed its guidance as “shocking.” The company is forecasting revenue growth of “up to 2 percent” for the full year.

For the third quarter, the company reported a group net loss of EUR429 million, compared with a profit of EUR5.06 billion in the comparable period, on revenue of EUR15.79 billion, up 3.7 percent from EUR15.23 billion.

The period saw a 33.4 percent increase in operating expenses to EUR13.17 billion from EUR9.87 billion.

Telefonica said that its 2011 numbers included a EUR2.67 billion provision for its workforce restructuring in Spain, while its 2010 results included a EUR3.8 billion gain on the revaluation of its holding in Brazilian business Vivo.

Continued pressure in its home market saw revenue from this business fall by 8.8 percent to EUR4.31 billion. Its European businesses (excluding Spain) also saw a revenue decline of 5 percent to EUR3.87 billion, while its Latin American units saw a revenue increase of 17.5 percent to EUR7.41 billion.

On an operating income before depreciation and amortisation level, the Spanish business saw a loss of EUR596 million, compared with a prior-year profit of EUR2.92 billion. Latin American OIBDA fell by 59.2 percent to EUR2.58 billion from EUR6.32 billion. In contrast, European OIBDA increased by 17.3 percent to EUR1.07 billion.

The group ended the period with 231.87 million mobile connections, up 9.9 percent year-on-year. It also saw a shift in balance in favour of contract customers, increasing to 32.3 percent of the total from 30.5 percent in September 2010.

From its European businesses, the company noted “strong commercial results by Telefonica Germany,” which “offset moderate performances elsewhere in the group.” It was also noted that “Telefonica UK saw fresh commercial momentum in the third quarter after the introduction of a new smartphone tariff structure at the end of August.”

In a statement, Cesar Alierta, chairman of Telefonica, noted: “The challenging economic environment, the growing competition and a regulation that does not favour the development of the sector in some of our markets, mean that we face significant challenges, but the new Telefonica’s organisational structure announced in September will allow us to accelerate our growth in the digital world and to improve our efficiency, leveraging our differential attributes: our diversification, integration, scale and scope.”