BERLIN Deutsche Telekom slightly raised its full-year operating profit target on Thursday after reporting a small bump in first-quarter revenue and profit that was in line with expectations.

The group now expects adjusted operating profit (EBITDA AL) to now reach 40.9 billion euros ($45.02 billion) in 2023, from previous guidance of 40.8 billion euros, on a more optimistic outlook from US subsidiary T-Mobile, it said.

An increase in customers helped first-quarter revenue grow 0.3% to 27.8 billion euros, while operating profit rose 0.9% to 10 billion euros. Consensus forecasts provided by the company put revenue at 27.8 billion euros and profit at 9.9 billion.

Deutsche Telekom said proceeds from the sale of its tower business helped reduce net debt excluding leases by over 10 billion euros compared with the end of 2022, to 93 billion euros. The transaction was also the main factor behind the near quadrupling of net profit, to 15.4 billion euros, compared with the same period last year, the company said.

Deutsche Telekom had agreed in July 2022 to sell 51% of its tower business in Germany and Austria to a consortium of Canada's Brookfield and U.S. private equity firm DigitalBridge after they made a surprise last-minute bid that valued the unit at 17.5 billion euros ($17.5 billion).

($1 = 0.9084 euros)

(Reporting by Hakan Ersen, Writing by Miranda Murray; editing by Friedrike Heine)