With net profit up 8.5% at the equivalent of $725m, just shy of analysts’ forecasts, Koninklijke PTT Nederland NV said that volumes increased in all its sectors, while sales grew despite telecommunications price cuts. The growth is attributable in part to a relatively small increase of 3.6% in operating expenses, the company said. Results from associates were depressed by an increase in start-up costs incurred by the Unisource BV joint venture with Telia AB, Swiss Telecom and Telefonica de Espana SA. This contrasts with the first half profit achieved by the Czech operator SPT, which has been included in the results for the first time, it said. Cost control is an extremely important thing for telecommunications in the second half year but the volume expansion is showing some very encouraging developments so, unless something happens that we don’t expect we feel confident that the second half year will see some further growth in earnings per share, said finance director Cees Griffioen. On the basis of what we see in the first half year, we feel confident that the second half is going to show more growth in volume in post, not necessarily the sort of peak we’ve seen in the first half but we feel very confident that we will be able to expand further, he told Reuter, shrugging off value-added tax on phone bills. We’re happy that we’ve been able to obtain two new listings in London and Frankfurt which may enhance the value and liquidity for our European investors.
