The Wall Street Journal-20080206-KPN NV- Income-Tax Gain Boosts Dutch Telecom-s Net Profit

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KPN NV: Income-Tax Gain Boosts Dutch Telecom's Net Profit

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Dutch telecommunications company KPN NV yesterday posted a sharp rise in fourth-quarter net profit, chiefly on a 1.1 billion euro ($1.6 billion) income-tax gain. Net rose to 1.58 billion euros from 427 million euros a year earlier, boosted by tax credits on the company's E-Plus mobile-phone business in Germany. Revenue rose 20% to 3.66 billion euros, helped by the integration of Dutch information- technology services company Getronics, which KPN bought in October for 766 million euros. KPN said it aims to return 2 billion euros to shareholders this year, of which 1 billion euros will be share buybacks. The company also said it would cut an additional 2,000 jobs within the next three years to save 110 million euros. In 2005, KPN said it would eliminate 8,000 jobs as part of a restructuring.