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Telstra profit up on strong subscriber growth

Telstra, Australia’s largest phone company, beat expectations with a 13 per cent increase in first-half profit, helped by rapid mobile phone and broadband subscriber growth, and lifted its 2008 guidance.

Telstra said net profit before one-offs in the six months to December 31 rose to A$1.93bn ($1.77bn) from A$1.7bn. That was above average of market forecasts of A$1.76bn, according to a Reuters survey, and near the top end of the range.

The company said mobile phone revenues rose 14.5 per cent to A$3.1bn, while retail broadband revenue jumped 65.2 per cent to A$844m as it continued to gain market share with subscriber growth of 50.5 per cent.

Telstra is two years into a five-year overhaul to slash costs, increase margins and diversify away from the declining market for fixed phone lines. It says the benefit of cost cutting will become evident in 2009.

Labour costs, excluding redundancy costs, declined 1 per cent in the six months, and Telstra said it was starting to see a positive impact on costs from productivity improvements. It maintained its forecast of accrued capital expenditure of A$4.6 to A$4.9bn in the fiscal year to June 2008.

Telstra has outperformed its global peers on arresting the decline in higher margin fixed line revenues, helped by being the dominant player in a fast-growing local economy.

It said on Thursday fixed-line revenues declined 2.1 per cent, the fourth consecutive six-month period the decline has slowed. That compared with a 2.5 per cent decline in the six months to June.

The company’s shares have been flat this year, beating a 13 per cent decline in the broader market, as investors switch into defensive stocks amid market ructions.

Источник: Financial Times

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