BARCELONA (Reuters) - Spain's Cellnex, Europe's largest mobile phone tower operator, on Monday reported a 6.1% hike in adjusted core earnings in the first nine months of the year as revenues grew 7% to 2.9 billion euros ($3.11 billion) thanks to the deployment of more towers.

Cellnex booked a narrower net loss of 140 million euros from 198 million euros in the same period of last year. It attributed the loss this year to a negative effect of its assets in Austria among other factors.

The company plans to sell its unit in Austria before the end of the year and its Ireland business in the first quarter of 2025, it said.

The results show "the strength of our key indicators quarter after quarter", said Cellnex's chief executive Marco Patuano in a statement, referring to revenue or free cash flow while stressing that the metrics are in line with the company's 2024 and mid-term goals.

Cellnex slightly reduced its net financial debt to 17.5 billion euros until September of this year. It said it has immediate liquidity access worth about 4 billion euros.

($1 = 0.9332 euros)

(Reporting by Joan Faus, editing by Inti Landauro)