According to the annual report released on Thursday, the telecoms group generated net sales revenue to the tune of EUR 716.17m, an increase of 2% on 2016.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) dropped by 15% to EUR 168.74m. Without the one-off effects the group would have performed in accordance with the targets.

Chairman Rudolf Skobe said the provisions were needed mainly to reduce exposure to damages claims and continued staff restructuring.

Reviewing the results yesterday, the supervisory board was also briefed on the status of damages claims, the newspaper Delo has reported.

The Ljubljana District Court is holding a pre-trial hearing on Thursday in a retrial of a EUR 129m damages suit brought against Telekom by T-2 for alleged abuse of monopoly market position.

Interest included, the claim has increased to EUR 261m.

In the period between 2012 and 2017 the group reduced the value of damages claims against affiliates by EUR 473m.

The bulk of the increase in net sales revenue was generated by higher wholesale market revenue and higher IT services revenue.

Skobe said that the company had completed the first phase of a transformation strategy which focused on innovation of core business.

Capital expenditure amounted to EUR 158.9m, of which EUR 144.4m in Slovenia. The same investment policy is planned for this year.

For this year the group projects operating revenue to the tune of EUR 755.3m and a net profit of EUR 40.9m and EBITDA of EUR 209.8m.

The core company saw its 2017 sales revenue rise by 1% to EUR 645.2m as IT services revenue increased by 18%. Net profit dropped to EUR 1.72m from EUR 40.46m in 2016.

The group increased the number of broadband subscribers by 6%. The Kosovo subsidiary Ipko saw the number of broadband subscribers rise by 7%, while the core company and Blicnet in Bosnia increased them by 5%.

The supervisory board and the management propose for the 11 May shareholders meeting to pay out a dividend of EUR 6.30 gross per share or EUR 40.98m in total.

The remaining EUR 74.38m in distributable profit is to be transferred.