Portugal’s NOS posts 30.5 million-euro profit despite lockdown

LISBON: Portuguese telecoms company NOS on Tuesday posted a net profit of 30.5 million euros ($37.10 million) in the first three months of the year despite taking a massive hit from the closure of its cinemas due to a lockdown imposed in mid-January. NOS, whose businesses also include cable television, reported a loss of 10.4 million euros during the same period in 2020 as a lockdown put in place on March 18 kept movie lovers away from the big screens.

While consolidated revenue fell over 2.3% to 337.4 million euros in the first quarter from a year ago, revenue from its core telecommunications business increased 0.8% to 335.7 million euros, NOS said in a statement. NOS’s revenue from cinemas dropped 55.4% to 9.7 million euros as it sold only around 16,000 movie tickets compared with the 1.5 million tickets it sold a year ago.