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* Q3 core profit down 15 pct, rate of decline slows
* Expects performance to stabilise by year-end
* Shares up 2.7 percent (Recasts, adds CEO, analyst comments, shares)
By Robert-Jan Bartunek
BRUSSELS, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Dutch telecoms group KPN's strategy of investing in faster networks is slowlystarting to bear fruit, it said on Tuesday after reportingrevenue and profit falling at a slower than expected pace in thethird quarter.
The group, in which Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim'sAmerica Movil has a 21.4 percent stake, said theimprovement was most noticeable in its consumer mobile andbusiness operation, though core profit still fell by 15 percent.
KPN cut its dividend to zero last year, opting to focus oninvestment in its fixed and mobile networks, with capitalexpenditure equivalent to about 17 percent of expected 2014revenue. It also sold its German business E-Plus to Spain'sTelefonica in a deal valued at 8.6 billion euros ($11billion).
Third-quarter mobile subscriber numbers rose at the fastestrate for five years, KPN said, increasing by 84,000 thanks toits fast mobile broadband 4G network and more users opting tobuy home broadband with a mobile subscription.
"KPN has put the right promotions on the market. There arestill price pressures, but they get the benefits of peoplestarting to use 4G," ABN Amro analyst Marc Hesselink said.
The company competes with Vodafone and DeutscheTelekom for mobile customers in the Netherlands,while its home broadband and digital TV business facescompetition from cable groups such as Ziggo and UPC.
Ziggo, which is being bought by UPC's owner Liberty Global,posted a 3.4 percent rise in third-quarter core profit thismonth, citing sales of high-margin products such as internetaccess.
SHARES BUOYED
Shares in KPN rose as much as 3.7 percent on Tuesday to 2.49euros, still well below the average of about 3.24 euros paid byAmerica Movil, which reduced its stake after failing to takecomplete control of the group in 2013. By 1053 GMT the shareswere up 2.7 percent
For KPN as a whole, core profit, adjusted for restructuringcosts, fell 15 percent to 650 million euros, slightly above the635 million euros expected in a Reuters poll of five analysts.
KPN repeated reiterated that it expects financialperformance to stabilise towards the end of the year, withcapital expenditure at less than 1.4 billion euros, though ChiefExecutive Eelco Blok would not elaborate further.
"I don't want to say whether, at the end of the year, therewill be a small plus or a small minus because I want to have theleeway to take the commercial measures necessary to continue ourstrong operational performance in the fourth quarter," he toldreporters.
Promotional measures in the third quarter included pricecuts on its home broadband and digital TV offerings, whichperformed worse than in the second quarter as revenue dipped by2.5 percent year on year.
KPN's net debt was 2.3 times core profit at the end of thequarter and the company said it would buy back up to 2 billioneuros of bonds to reduce gross debt. It also announced adividend of 0.07 euros for the full year, with 0.02 euros paidthis month and the rest to be paid in April.
Rivals Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone are due to announcequarterly results on Nov. 6 and 11 respectively.(1 US dollar = 0.7880 euro) (Editing by David Goodman)
