Telefonica’s newly appointed CEO and chairman Marc Murtra told Financial Times (FT) the company would pursue deals under his stewardship to help Europe better compete on a global scale, as he looks to revive the operator’s fortunes.

Murtra spoke to FT in one of his first public addresses since being appointed by Telefonica shareholders earlier this year to replace Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, an interview coinciding with the release of the company’s Q4 2024 results.

The executive said he wanted to boost Europe’s “strategic autonomy” in the face of US dominance in technology by pursuing and driving telecoms mergers.

“We think there’s got to be and there is going to be an intra-market consolidation and a European-wide consolidation. That’s what we want to play a leading part in.”

In other comments, Murtra said big technology companies had helped the US move ahead in the race for global dominance, but Europe has the ability and resources to make the playing field more equal. “My view is that while calamities are inevitable, decadence is not.”

Since taking charge, Murtra has launched a strategic review of Telefonica which is due to complete in the second half of the year.

While emphasising the need for Europe to increase competitiveness, Murtra added it would focus on areas related to telecoms and not try to compete with US giants in other segments.

“We’re going to focus on what we know how to do better than anybody else. Anything we’re going to do…is going to have an industrial rationale and we’re going to look at the numbers very carefully.”

Numbers
In Telefonica’s first results announcement with Murtra at the helm, it reported a 5.4 per cent year-on-year revenue increase to €10.7 billion for Q4 2024.

Net income hit €425 million, a decrease of almost 42 per cent due to restructuring costs.

Notably, the company reached a deal during the quarter to sell its Argentina unit.

Full year revenue increased 1.6 per cent to €41.3 billion, with net income coming in at €2.3 billion, a 2.8 per cent decrease.

In an earnings statement, Murtra said that as he took on the role as chair and CEO, he saw a company built on “exception foundations”.

“We have delivered on our financial commitments while continuing to strengthen our competitive position. We have sustained momentum in our core markets of Spain, Brazil, Germany and UK.”