Cost cutting and strong mobile sales more than offset continuing declines in fixed-line revenue for Greek incumbent telco OTE, which reported a 17 percent increase in second quarter revenues over the same period a year ago.
The company, which sold a 25 percent stake to Deutsche Telekom earlier this year, met analyst expectations; revenue was 159.3 million euros compared with 136.6 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased 2.5 percent to 1.59 billion euros from 1.55 billion euros a year earlier.
"The first cut is that the results were good," said HSBC analyst Vangelis Karanikas. "And that's because of better-than-expected operations of fixed line and Cosmote (mobile operations)."
The phone company, a one-time monopoly, has lost customers in recent years to a number of rivals. But its mobile subsidiary, Cosmote, has become the largest cellular operator in both Greece and the Balkans.
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