Spanish telecom giant Telefonica sees rise in profits

MADRID, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica on Wednesday announced that its profits for the first nine months of 2012 rose by 26.4 percent in comparison to last year.

Profits during the period reached 3.4 billion euros (4.4 billion U.S. dollars), it was confirmed by the Spanish National Commission of Market Values.

The increased profit was achieved despite a small reduction in income of 0.3 percent over the period. Telefonica's revenue fell to 46.5 billion euros, but the profits were achieved thanks to a 5.4 percent reduction in spending to 31.6 million euros.

Telefonica continued to prosper in Latin America, with the period seeing a 5.9 percent rise in income, while it saw a 6.4 percent fall in business in European operations.

Telefonica ended September with 314 million clients throughout the world, 5 percent more than a year ago. Of those, 246 million are mobile phone users. (1 euro=1.28 U.S. dollars)

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