Statement of the Board of Management on business development in 2025
Bonn, February 17, 2026
Deutsche Telekom remained reliable and successful amid the challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic environment in the 2025 financial year. We concentrate on our strengths, keep our sights trained on our goals, and achieve them with commitment, a clear plan, and teamwork. For example, in the reporting year we successfully completed acquisitions in the United States, targeted investments in our networks and future technology, and forged ahead with digitalization, among other things through the wide-ranging use of artificial intelligence.
We raised our full-year guidance for 2025 (adjusted EBITDA AL, free cash flow AL) three times in the course of the year. Our course of growth continued: Net revenue increased by 2.9 % to EUR 119.1 billion. Service revenue also increased by 2.9 % to EUR 99.4 billion. This is the result of the positive response from customers. Adjusted EBITDA AL grew by 2.8 % to EUR 44.2 billion. The main reason for this increase is sound operational development and further enhanced cost efficiency. EBIT decreased by 5.5 % to EUR 24.8 billion, mainly due to the reversal in 2024 of previously recognized impairment losses on FCC licenses of T‑Mobile US. We achieved these growth rates in spite of the challenging market environment, especially with regard to the weakness of the U.S. dollar. In organic terms, i.e., assuming comparable exchange rates and a comparable composition of the Group, revenue grew by 4.2 % and adjusted EBITDA AL by 4.7 %.
Our loss from financial activities improved to EUR ‑5.3 billion as a result of higher reversals of impairment losses recognized in the prior year on our investments in GD Towers and GlasfaserPlus. Adjusted net profit increased to EUR 9.7 billion. Adjusted earnings per share increased to EUR 2.00.
ROCE fell year-on-year to 7.5 %, due to a reduction in net operating profit after taxes (NOPAT). The aforementioned reversals of impairment losses did not benefit NOPAT to the same extent in the 2025 financial year as in the prior year.
Net debt decreased by EUR 4.8 billion to EUR 132.5 billion. This was in large part due to free cash flow (before dividend payments and spectrum investment) and the weaker U.S. dollar. The main factors increasing net debt were the corporate transactions in the United States operating segment, the T‑Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom AG share buy-back programs, and the dividend payments.
Conditions on the telecommunications market remained challenging in the reporting year amid ongoing competitive pressure and strict regulatory requirements. Nevertheless, we successfully completed key acquisitions in the United States and systematically built out our network infrastructure. In 2025, we made Group-wide investments (before spectrum) of EUR 16.9 billion. Including spectrum payments, this figure was EUR 19.3 billion. Our main focus was on our broadband and mobile infrastructure (optical fiber and 5G). Our free cash flow AL (before dividend payments and spectrum investment) increased to EUR 19.5 billion. As a solid investment-grade company, we have access to the international capital markets. The rating agency Moody’s upgraded our rating in September 2025 from Baa1/positive to A3/stable.
We presented our finance strategy through 2027 at the 2024 Capital Markets Day. We are continuing our attractive dividend policy of paying out 40 to 60 % of adjusted EPS each year for our shareholders. For the 2025 financial year, we will propose a dividend of EUR 1.00 for each dividend-bearing share. This will once again be paid out this year without any deduction of capital gains tax. We started our new 2026 share buy-back program with a total volume of up to EUR 2 billion on January 5, 2026.
The international stock markets and the European telecommunications sector continued to be dominated by buoyant share prices in 2025. Following a solid first six months of 2025, the T-Share closed the financial year down slightly, mainly on account of the weak U.S. dollar and the weaker development of the share price of our U.S. subsidiary T‑Mobile US.
We take up digitalization and artificial intelligence as the primary drivers of significant changes in our ecosystem and correspondingly also in our strategic alignment. Building and operating convergent networks remains the core of our strategy. Our goal is firmly in our sights: We want to become the Leading Digital Telco. In the 2025 financial year, we digitalized business models and made progress in respect of AI. Our AI partnership with Nvidia was a milestone. As was our AI phone. And of course, we are also using AI to help ourselves wherever we can. This gives us a responsibility that we embrace. Because we connect people – across borders, generations, and life situations. We continue to invest in innovation, in sustainability, and in the future. It is with this approach that we enter the 2026 financial year.