Telefonica sees 28.7% profit drop

Telefonica, Europe’s second-largest phone company, has posted a 28.7% drop in profits in the nine months to the end of September.

The 02 owner also saw a slight revenue decline in Europe. Net profit was £4.78bn, as £2.2bn in one-off gains from asset sales made last year, distorted comparative figures. The company says removing one-off items, net profit would have risen 23.5%. Revenues rose 2.7% to £36.8bn. Latin America performed strongly, while there was slower growth in Spain and a slight decline in Europe.

Last month, mobile operator O2 announced that it would split the role of marketing director in the UK between head of consumer marketing Peter Rampling and head of pre-pay marketing Alistair Johnston. The temporary changes were made while its current marketing director Sally Cowdry announced she would be going on maternity leave.