Cash is king

KPN has had trouble keeping investors onside. The Dutch telecoms operator raised its ebitda guidance last October, but the shares have underperformed the European peer group by six percentage points since then. So now it is now trying to impress by flaunting rich prospective cash flows. The group’s operating performance wasn’t much to write home about in the fourth quarter. True, KPN didn’t do as badly as it the headline 13% decline in ebitda suggests. Strip out one-offs and there was a 1.6% in...