BellSouth revenues hit by Katrina, Q3 profits up by 2.3 percent

BellSouth revenues hit by Katrina, Q3 profits up by 2.3 percent
ATLANTA - BellSouth Corp, the local telephone provider that has a lion's share of the market in the Southeast has released the results for the third quarter of the year. The part owner of Cingular Wireless made a modest increase in profits to 2.3 percent, but admitted that it had been hit by costs related to the Hurricane Katrina.

The company's profits for the three months ending September 30 stood at $817 million or 44 cents a share as compared with the $799 million reported at the same time last year. These figures do not include the earnings from Cingular Wireless.

"Our employees demonstrated tremendous commitment to serve our customers. At the same time, we maintained focus on the key growth areas of our business, delivering solid revenue performance and continued customer growth from broadband and wireless services," said Duane Ackerman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at BellSouth.

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Last month, the company had acknowledged that the damage to its network in Louisiana would cost about $400 million and $600 million. This affected the total revenues, which dipped to $5.07 billion from the $5.095 billion that was recorded a year ago.

When the earnings of the Cingular Wireless were included, BellSouth said that the normalized earnings hit $845 million, or 46 cents per share. "Results for the quarter remained strong despite extraordinary challenges we faced with Hurricane Katrina," Ackerman said.

BellSouth is the prominent provider of local telephone services in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana. The company also owns a part of Cingular Wireless in collaboration with SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio.

In the backdrop of the Q3 report, BellSouth shares were up 11 cents to $25.73 in early morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.