Spanish mobile and broadband operator Telefonica is planning to cut at least 2,000 jobs and up to 4,000 through voluntary redundancy in the first half of 2022, Reuters reported.
The debt-laden company is likely to start negotiations with unions on the job cuts by the end of November.
Europe’s third largest telecoms group, which is grappling with intense competition in an increasingly low-cost Spanish market, has been considering job cuts for months amid pressure from investors.
The company reported a net profit of 706 million euros ($818 million) in the third quarter compared with a 160 million loss in the same period a year ago, following a 785 million euro write-down of assets in Argentina.
While business was brisk in Germany and in Latin America, core profit in Spain during the quarter fell 8.9 percent from the previous year.
Over the first nine months of the year, Telefonica booked a record 9.34 billion euro net profit, mainly because of capital gains made on the sale of its Telxius tower unit and the tie-up of its O2 unit and Virgin Media in Britain.
Revenue of Telefonica fell 11 percent in the third quarter of the current year as the telecom company has become significantly smaller as a result of asset sales, but core earnings rose 40 percent.
Telefonica has managed to reduce its debt to 25 billion euros in September, 32 percent less than in September 2020.
