MILAN: Telecom Italia<\/a>'s (TIM<\/a>) core profit fell sharply in the first quarter hit by shrinking revenues in the group's competitive domestic market, where demand for connectivity weakened after a pandemic-driven surge.
TIM said domestic sales, which accounts for about 80% of group revenue, fell 7.7% to 2.85 billion euros, in line with an analyst consensus provided by the company.
Organic earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) after lease fell 16.3% to 1.17 in the January-March period compared with the same period the year before, also broadly in line with analyst expectations.
Organic EBITDA after lease - TIM's main measure of profitability - strips out one-off items and includes lease costs<\/a>.
TIM stuck to a full-year forecast of a 'mid to high teens' drop in core profit after lease, after posting a 2021 net loss of 8.4 billion euros.
The debt laden former phone monopoly is working on an overhaul centred around a split of its services businesses from its wholesale network operations, after ending talks last month on a takeover approach from U.S. fund KKR.
As part of the break-up plan, TIM has started talks with state lender CDP<\/a> to revive a project to combine its fixed network assets with those of broadband<\/a> rival Open Fiber<\/a>.
CDP owns 60% of Open Fiber and 10% of TIM. To ensure state oversight of a strategic infrastructure it would have control of any combined network<\/a> entity.
TIM on Wednesday gave no update on the state of discussions with CDP after the parties missed an initial April 30 deadline for a preliminary agreement.
TIM and CDP need more time to clinch an accord, which could involve also infrastructure funds KKR and Macquarie, two people close to the matter said.
KKR holds a minority stake in TIM's grid. Macquarie is a minority investor in Open Fiber.
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