Strong US, German business drives Deutsche Telekom earnings in 2015

German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom said Thursday that strong growth of its US mobile unit and rising customer numbers in its home market helped drive profits higher in 2015.

Deutsche Telekom said in a statement that its net profit climbed by 11 percent to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) last year, outpacing analysts' expectations.

Underlying or operating profit grew by 13.3 percent to 19.9 billion euros on a 10.5-percent increase in revenues to 69.2 billion euros.

"Deutsche Telekom was extremely successful on both sides of the Atlantic in 2015," said chief executive Tim Hoettges.

The US mobile business, T-Mobile US, "grew much faster than the other mobile operators in the US in 2015 and at the same time managed to substantially improve profitability," Telekom said.

Now the number three in the US, customer numbers at T-Mobile US rose by 8.3 million to 63.3 million as of the end of the year.

"Overall, the trend in customer numbers in the US continues to show a clearly positive balance in relation to every single competitor of T-Mobile US," Telekom said.

In its home in Germany, too, the group said it was able to gain new customers in its mobile business.

Looking ahead, Deutsche Telekom said it "plans to maintain the dynamic growth of the last year and continue to grow profitably in 2016."

"Substantial increases" were projected in sales and underlying profit, with the latter expected to grow by six percent to 21.2 billion euros, it said.

Based on the strength of its 2015 results, Deutsche Telekom said it will propose an increased dividend of 0.55 euros per share for last year, up 10 percent from the previous year.