Swisscom profits decline 13% in Q2

Swisscom reported a 13% decline in second-quarter net profit because of the early termination of cross-border lease agreements, an Associated Press report said.

But the company said its new Italian subsidiary Fastweb was helping the bottom line, the report added.

Switzerland's largest telephone company's net income attributable to shareholders was 412 million Swiss francs (€378.6 million), compared with 475 million francs (€436.6 million) for the second quarter of 2007, a Swisscom statement said.

Net revenue for the quarter was 3.06 billion francs (€3.3 billion), 12.5% higher than the 2.7 billion francs (€2.48 billion) of the same period a year ago.

Some 405 million francs (€372.4 million) of the net revenue was attributable to the takeover of Italian telecoms company Fastweb, the statement said.

A decline of revenue in Switzerland from traditional fixed network business was partly compensated by the continuing increase in the number of broadband access lines and mobile subscribers, and growth in new business areas like television service over broadband links, Swisscom said.

For the first half of the year, the company posted a 17.6% increase in revenue to 5.99 billion francs (€5.6 billion).