Telecom posts earnings of $1.157 billion

Total revenues were $4.5 billion, 9 percent less than the figure posted last year, but Telecom says the results include five months of trading before its demerger from Chorus, which makes year on year comparisons “complex”.

“When these declines are ring-fenced the New Zealand business revenues fell around 2 percent for the year. Core business such as domestic fixed line access, calling and data continue to decline and are partially offset by growth in mobile and broadband,” says Chris Quin, acting Telecom CEO.

“In addition, the decline in revenue has been offset by reductions in operating expenses, which fell by more than 12 percent compared to the prior year.”

According to the results Telecom has cut expenses by around $500 million from the previous year.

Following the shutting down of the CDMA network in July, Quin says Telecom’s customer base “reset” to 1.6 million. At its half-year report in February Telecom said there were 600,000 CDMA customers, Quin says the average revenue per connection per month for these connections was around $1.50.

Around 63,000 new customers have moved onto Telecom’s XT network in the last year, he adds.

Quin says broadband revenues rose 4 percent to $333 million and 9000 new connections were made this year. Quin’s own division, Gen-i, secured or extended contracts worth $734 million with a services margin of 9 percent.

Although new CEO Simon Moutter has already started at Telecom, Quin will be presenting the results at an analysts meeting at 10am.

Telecom New Zealand 2012 financial year results:

	REPORTED FY12	ADJUSTED FY12	ADJUSTED H2 FY12
EBITDA - continuing	$1.079 billion	$1.048 billion	$560 million
EBITDA - discontinued	$1.103 billion	$321 million	0
Total EBITDA	$2,182 billion	$1,369 billion	$560 million
Net earnings	$1,157 billion	$422 million	$182 million
Total CapEx	$528 million	$528 million	$203 million