By Adria Calatayud

Telia Co. AB said Wednesday that third-quarter net profit rose as it felt a lessening impact from the coronavirus pandemic, and proposed an additional dividend.

The Swedish telecommunications operator made a profit of 2.52 billion Swedish kronor ($287.9 million) compared with SEK2.38 billion for the same period a year before.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--the company's preferred metric, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--was down 0.2% at SEK8.21 billion. Analysts expected an adjusted Ebitda of SEK7.82 billion, according to a consensus based on estimates by 11 analysts and provided by FactSet.

Telia's net sales for the quarter rose 2% to SEK21.53 billion. On a like-for-like basis, net sales fell 3.7%.

The company said the pandemic had an estimated SEK600 million hit on service revenue, driven by lower roaming and advertising revenue, and an estimated SEK300 million impact on adjusted Ebitda.

As a result of the lower coronavirus impact compared with the previous quarter, Telia now expects adjusted Ebitda for the full year of around SEK30.5 billion, and operational free cash flow for in the upper end of its previous guidance range of SEK9.5 billion to SEK10.5 billion.

The company said its board has decided to propose an additional dividend of SEK0.65 a share.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-21-20 0134ET