Vicki Brady (Telstra)
Telstra’s mobiles business and support from its 2021 acquisition of Digicel Pacific have pushed up total income by 6.4 per cent and profit by 25.7 per cent in its first half-year results for the 2023 financial year.
This brought income up to $11.3 billion and $934 million, respectively, over the six-month period to 31 December 2022.
Additionally, revenue was also up 7.6 per cent, to $11.3 billion.
This is a turnaround compared to the same time last year when Telstra reported year-on-year declines in income, revenue and profit, which at the time was chalked up to the decline in National Broadband Network (NBN) payment receipts during the period.
Breaking down the telco’s divisions for the recent half year, income in its Consumer and Small Business (C&SB) unit grew by 6.7 per cent, to $6.4 billion, which included 11.1 per cent growth in mobile income.
This unit also saw mobile services revenue increase with growth in average revenue per user (ARPU) and services in operation (SIO) across its mobile products, as well as higher mobile hardware revenue from increased sales volumes.
Telstra Enterprise income meanwhile was up 10.2 per cent to $3.9 billion, which contains $356 million from Digicel Pacific, the telecommunications company Telstra announced it was to acquire in 2021 for $2.1 billion in total.
As such, the telco’s International business represented 10 per cent of earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA). When excluding Digicel, its International arm grew 9.3 per cent in Australian dollars or 7 per cent in constant currency.
Networks and IT income increased by 12.2 per cent to $138 million and its InfraCo business income was up 2.4 per cent to $1.8 billion.
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said the first half of FY23 saw it achieve strong growth, as well as made progress on its T25 strategy, which aims to slash $500 million in cost reductions, and finalised its legal restructuring.
“We are a growing business with a lot to be excited about in our future, and our T25 strategy provides a clear roadmap to get us there,” she said.
