Marc Murtra has been at the helm of Telefónica for a year and has done something that his predecessor did not achieve in a decade: slimming down the company
Marc Murtra wears just over a year at the head of Telefónica and the 2025 numbers begin to validate its thesis: concentrate on four markets (Spain, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom) and avoid the rest. Group income have grown by 1.5%, up to 35,120 million eurosand the adjusted profit reaches 2,122 million. On paper, it works. Why is it important. Telefónica has done in two years what it was not able to do in a decade: get rid of Latin American ballasts (Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador…) and redraw its perimeter. The result is a smaller, but more predictable company. And in Spain, where it has not grown since 2008, it has once again shown signs of life: +1.7% in revenue, up to 13,012 million. The backdrop. The Álvarez-Pallete stage cut the debt of the Alierta stage by halfbut it was still a brutal debt and the company had a geographical dispersion that consumed a lot of management energy without a return that was far from proportional. Murtra has opted for surgery: sell assets, continue reducing debt (337 million less in 2025, it is already at 26,824 million) and bet on markets where Telefónica has real muscle. The logic is clear. And the execution, reasonably clean. Between the lines. Brazil is now the financial heart of the group, and that has implications that go beyond quarterly results. Vivo, Telefónica’s local brand in the country, has earned more than 1,000 million euros net in 2025, 11.2% morewith an Ebitda of 41.7% that would make any European telecom company blush. Its 5G network already covers two-thirds of the Brazilian population and leads the market by number of customers. Brazil should no longer be considered an emerging market with potential: right now it is the most mature and profitable asset that Telefónica has. There is also a background reading that the results do not make explicit but that the context does suggest: the demand for data in Latin America is accelerating precisely now due to the pull of AI: more consumption in the cloud, more traffic, more need for infrastructure. Telefónica has sold its Latin American subsidiaries just when that market may be entering a new phase of growth. It is the big question that presumably no one at Telefónica wants to answer openly. Main winner? Brazil, without a doubt, but also Spain. The domestic business has broken a curse of almost two decades and is beginning to generate cash in a stable manner. That debt goes down, albeit slowly, while income goes up, is the combination that the market has been waiting for for years. Main loser? The United Kingdom. Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), the joint venture in which Telefónica has 50%, has registered net losses of 1,852 million euros in 2025 (up from £19m the previous year) following a goodwill impairment charge of more than £1bn. Its income has fallen 5.3%. And by 2026, the company itself expects service revenue to drop between 3% and 5% more, dragged down by integration with Daisy Group in May 2025. The British telecommunications market is in a price war that has no easy winners, and VMO2 has been sailing against the tide for some time. The big question. Murtra has shown the ability to clean up the balance and simplify the map. What has not yet been demonstrated is that Telefónica can grow organically and sustainably in its four key markets. Spain and Brazil are making progress, but Germany continues to be a story of pending consolidation and the United Kingdom is getting complicated. The plan is well designed. Now it’s time to execute it. In Xataka | We need more and more data centers. And Telefónica is building them in its old telephone exchanges Featured image | Telephone
