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Telekom Austria cuts outlook on Q3 net loss

Thu Nov 12, 2009 4:16am EST

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* Q3 net loss 136 mln eur vs poll avg net profit 132 mln eur

* 352 mln eur goodwill writedown on Belarus, Serbia

* Cuts EBITDA, revenue outlook, keeps dividend, cashflow

* Blames fx, weak E.Europe economies, roaming price cuts

(Adds details, background)

VIENNA, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Telekom Austria (TELA.VI) swung to a surprise loss in the third quarter due to goodwill writedowns for eastern European assets and cut its full-year core earnings outlook after missing estimates for the quarter.

The group reported a net loss of 136.3 million euros ($204.2 million) after writing 352 million euros off the value of its mobile operators in Belarus and Serbia, once among its growth hopes but now a drag on earnings as crisis hits the region.

Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected net profit of 132 million euros and EBITDA of 502 million euros.

Telekom Austria also cut its full-year outlook for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) after they also missed all forecasts in a Reuters poll, coming in at 489.8 million euros in the quarter, down 9 percent.

"The main reasons for the weaker outlook include foreign exchange losses, lower roaming revenues, declining prices and the impact from weaker economies in Telekom Austria's main foreign operations," the group said in a statement.

"The management expects the difficult market environment to prevail also in 2010," it said.

Telekom Austria now sees 2009 EBITDA at 1.8 billion euros after forecasting 1.9 billion euros before. It said it would cut investments to make up for the decline and kept its free cashflow outlook and its dividend pledge of 0.75 euros.

The market had stopped believing in the EBITDA outlook before. The average estimate according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S stands at 1.84 billion euros for 2009.

($1=.6674 euros)

(Reporting by Boris Groendahl, editing by Will Waterman and Mike Nesbit)

((boris.groendahl@reuters.com; +43 1 53112-258; Reuters Messaging: boris.groendahl.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: TELEKOMAUSTRIA/

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