Deutsche Telekom (ETR: DTEGn) raised its full-year earnings outlook for the third time in 2025 after reporting stronger third-quarter results. The company said profit growth was supported by solid performance in both its U.S. and European businesses.
The telecom group reported improvements across key financial metrics and announced plans for a record dividend and a new share buyback program.
The Bonn-based firm said net revenue rose 3.3% organically from a year earlier to €28.9 billion. Service revenue increased 3.6% on an organic basis.
Adjusted EBITDA after leases (AL) grew 2.9% organically to €11.1 billion. However, weaker exchange rates—especially the U.S. dollar—reduced the reported growth numbers. Revenue fell by 1.5%, service revenue by 2.2%, and adjusted EBITDA AL by 0.2% due to currency effects.
Chief executive Tim Höttges said the company continued to deliver strong results despite challenging market conditions. He added that shareholders should benefit through a higher dividend.
Adjusted net profit rose 14.3% to €2.7 billion in the third quarter. But excluding special items, net profit fell 17.9% to €2.4 billion because last year’s quarter included positive one-off gains at two subsidiaries.
Free cash flow AL dropped 9.2% year over year to €5.6 billion but increased 6.8% to €16.1 billion over the first nine months of the year.
The company now expects adjusted EBITDA AL of around €45.3 billion for 2025, compared with its previous guidance of more than €45 billion.
Free cash flow AL is forecast to reach roughly €20.1 billion, slightly above the earlier estimate of more than €20 billion. The outlook for markets outside the United States remains unchanged.
Deutsche Telekom plans to raise its dividend for the 2025 financial year from €0.90 to €1 per share, subject to approval. It also intends to buy back up to €2 billion in shares in 2026.
In Germany, demand for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) continued to grow. The company added 155,000 net FTTH customers between July and September, marking its best quarter for new pure-fiber users. Its fiber network now reaches 11.8 million households.
Mobile service revenue rose 1.8% organically, while branded contract customer additions reached 314,000. Adjusted EBITDA AL in Germany rose 0.1% to €2.7 billion, although total revenue slipped 1.8% to €6.3 billion.
In the United States, T-Mobile US added 2.3 million postpaid customers, including 1 million postpaid phone users.
The American unit raised its full-year postpaid addition forecast to between 7.2 million and 7.4 million, up from the previous range of 6.1 million to 6.4 million. Service revenue grew 9% to $18.2 billion, and adjusted EBITDA AL increased 5.5% to $8.4 billion.
In Europe, adjusted EBITDA AL rose 4.6% to €1.2 billion organically, while total revenue increased 2.2% to €3.2 billion. Service revenue gained 3.3%. Deutsche Telekom also completed the sale of its Romanian mobile operations on October 1.
T-Systems, the company’s IT services division, posted adjusted EBITDA AL of €127 million, up 22.8% from a year earlier. Organic revenue increased 3% to €1 billion.
The firm reported 201,336 employees at the end of the quarter, up 0.7% from the previous year. Net debt including leases rose 3.2% to €132.8 billion.
