Telstra Delivers $4.23B Profit
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Telstra has reported $4.23 billion in net profits during the 2015 financial year they have also grown their mobile subscriber base by 300,000 customers.

Whilst the result was technically a fall in net profit, this was due to the sale of overseas business units.

The result was in line with analyst expectations. Goldman Sachs had predicted Telstra would make a $4.26 billion net profit while Citi Research forecast $4.12 billion.

Continued growth in the mobile market is crucial for Telstra because it helps offset falls in fixed-line phone lines and helps fund the company’s push into Asia and new technologies.

Telstra’s mobile subscriber base grew by 300,000 to hit 16.7 million as of June 30, 2015. By comparison, Vodafone Hutchison Australia has 5.255 million customers while Optus has around 9.43 million.

New Chief Executive Officer Andrew Penn said  “The 2015 financial year saw Telstra continue to perform strongly, growing revenues, adding fixed and mobile customer services and continuing to invest in our network advantage”.

“This is our first full financial year operating without the CSL Hong Kong mobile business, which was sold in May 2014. As a result, our reported income and profit numbers are impacted on a comparative basis. However, excluding the profit from sale and operational impacts of CSL, our business continued to perform strongly. On a guidance basis, and excluding CSL operating results, our Total Income was up 6.6 per cent and EBITDA was up 4.5 per cent. 

“In November 2014 we launched our new 4GX service, offering customers in over 1,200 suburbs and towns some of the fastest mobile data speeds in the world, with top speeds on compatible devices up to twice as fast as 4G. In June 2015, we were selected to participate in one of the largest ever expansions of mobile coverage in regional and remote Australia, through the Federal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Programme.

“We also switched on Australia’s largest Wi-Fi access network, Telstra Air, in June 2015, with hotspots already provided in more than 250 cities and towns. We aspire to offer Australians access to two million hotspots across the nation by 2020, and we already provide access to more than 16 million international
hotspots through our partnership with Fon Wireless Ltd.”

Mr Penn said Telstra’s strategic growth plan was designed to transition Telstra into a global technology company that empowered people to connect, and Telstra continued to invest in new businesses to grow its coverage and capability outside of Australia.

“We have made a number of acquisitions, including Pacnet Limited, a provider of connectivity, managed services and data centres in the Asia Pacific region. This acquisition increased the scale and capability of our fixed infrastructure, network density and coverage across the region, as well as our customer base and
operational capability,” Mr Penn said.

In the last 18 months Telstra Health has completed 15 acquisitions, investments and distribution agreements and built capabilities across the health system including electronic prescription and dispensing, residential, aged and community care software, hospital information systems, telemedicine, health analytics and other
solutions to help patients, providers and health professionals connect more efficiently.