Telefonica 2Q Net Profit Rises 18%

Telefonica SA (TEF) posted an 18% increase in net profit in the second quarter from a year earlier as the Spanish telecommunications giant also made some progress chipping away at its debt pile.

The Madrid-based company on Thursday said second-quarter net profit was 821 million euros ($963 million) versus 693 million euros a year earlier.

Revenue in the second quarter was 13 billion euros, a 1.9% increase from the year-earlier period. Telefonica said it was upgrading its revenue guidance to increase by more than 1.5% in 2017 from a previous guidance of stable growth for the year.

Operating income excluding depreciation and amortization was 4.2 billion euros in the quarter versus 3.9 billion euros a year earlier.

Telefonica's net debt decreased by 279 million euros in the second quarter from the first quarter to 48.49 billion euros. That reduction was thanks to free-cash-flow generation and the lower value in euros of the net debt in foreign currencies, the company said.

Write to Jeannette Neumann at jeannette.neumann@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2017 02:08 ET (06:08 GMT)