Telefonica SA (TEF) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

May 11, 2023 4:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Telefonica's January-March 2023 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Adrian Zunzunegui, Global Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Adrian Zunzunegui

Good morning, and welcome to Telefonica's conference call to discuss January-March 2023 results. I'm Adrian Zunzunegui from Investor Relations.

Before proceeding, let me mention the financial information contained in this document has been prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union. This financial information is unaudited.

This conference call and webcast, including the Q&A session, may contain forward-looking statements and information relating to the Telefonica Group. These statements may include financial or operating forecasts and estimates or statements regarding plans, objectives, and expectations regarding different matters.

All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the final developments and results to materially differ from those expressed or implied by such statements. We encourage you to review our publicly available disclosure documents filed with the relevant securities market regulators. If you don't have a copy of the relevant press release and the slides, please contact Telefonica's Investor Relations team in Madrid or London.

Now let me turn the call over to our Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Angel Vila.

Angel Vila

Thank you, Adrian. Good morning, and welcome to Telefonica's first quarter conference call. With me today are Laura Abasolo, Eduardo Navarro, and Lutz Schüler. As usual, we will first walk you through the slides, and we'll then be happy to take any questions.

I would like to start highlighting how we continue to progress on our strategy and to deliver on our goals. Strong momentum continued in our core markets. In Spain, service revenue growth accelerated, and year-on-year OIBDA trend improved as we had anticipated. Brazil posted double-digit growth on both revenue and OIBDA. In Germany, 5G deployment progressed well, and financials remain robust. In the U.K., revenue stepped up another quarter.

Our scaled European cloud and cyber champion, Telefonica Tech, increased revenue by 44% year-on-year, largely outgrowing its market. And at Telefonica Infra, we continued progressing in FiberCo rollout, while Telxius again recorded very solid growth rates.

Group-wise, the Open Gateway initiative, I joined the effort for leading telcos under GSMA sponsorship, was successfully presented during Mobile World Congress '23, whilst on the ESG side, our greenabler strategy continues anticipating regulatory needs.