GENEVA, Aug 12 – Swiss telecoms giant Swisscom on Wednesday said net profit grew 20.7 percent on the year to 1.02 billion Swiss francs (665 million euros, 943 million dollars) in the first semester.
The result was better than expected by analysts questioned by the Swiss financial news provider AWP, who predicted 971 million francs for the period.
Sales were down by 1.2 percent to 5.91 billion francs, in line with expectations.
At a constant rate of exchange, sales were up by 0.3 percent. Earnings (EBITDA) also fell back 3.8 percent to 2.33 billion Swiss francs.
The group said that an increase in the number of its customers had not compensated for the continuous erosion of prices on the Swiss market, central to its activities.
