Portugal Telecom on Wednesday indicated a lower Capex (capital spending) in 2014.
Portugal Telecom, which has presence in Portugal and Brazil, said the 2014 Capex in the Portuguese telecom businesses, will be more demand driven given the recent investments in the modernization of the networks and in technology.
Its Capex in Portugal will be below €400 million in 2014, showing a substantial decrease compared with 2013.
In 2013, Portugal Telecom’s Capex in Portugal was €490 million. Out of this, the mobile operator invested €199 million in telecom infrastructure, €159 million in consumer, €111 million in IT and €21 million in other categories.
In 2012, its Capex in Portugal was €555 million.
The company, announcing the financial result for 2013, said its total Capex – for Brazil and Portugal — amounted to €589 million in 2013, equivalent to 20.2 percent of revenues, as compared to €661 million in 2012.
The drop in 2013 Capex was 15.7 percent as compared with 2012.
This decrease is explained by a lower contribution from Portuguese telecommunications businesses (€66 million), which stood at €490 million in 2013, reflecting: (1) lower customer related Capex, explained by lower unitary equipment costs and lower churn across the pay-TV and broadband services, and (2) lower infrastructure and technology related Capex, as a result of the strong investments made in the past years, both on FTTH and 4G-LTE networks.
Portugal Telecom said it invested in four key areas in order to prepare itself for convergence.
These include network with integrated management for fixed-mobile network; storage and processing, with the inauguration of one of the most efficient data centres in the world and the creation of partnerships to deliver the best cloud solutions; customer touch points, with the integration of fixed and mobile stores under a unique concept and a single CRM software with a 360º customer vision, and multi-platform apps, to enhance customers experience.
At present, 1.6 million homes are covered with fiber. 94 percent base stations are connected with fiber. LTE reaches 93 percent of population.
Portugal Telecom said it posted 35 percent fall in quarterly net profit to €25.9 million in the last quarter of 2013. Revenues dropped almost 3 percent to around €736 million. For 2013, PT’s profit rose 47 percent to €331 million after the sale of its stake in Brazil’s CTM telecom operator, while its EBITDA fell 10 percent.