By Stuart Condie
SYDNEY–TPG Telecom held its final dividend as the Australian telecommunications provider raised annual underlying earnings by 7.6% amid strong growth in mobile revenue.
The ASX-listed company on Monday reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, of 1.93 billion Australian dollars (US$1.27 billion) for the 12 months through December, once one-off items were stripped out.
Revenue rose 2.2% to A$5.53 billion but Ebitda fell 12% to A$1.875 billion once items including the prior year sale of its mobile towers were factored in. TPG’s 2023 result also included a A$17 million impairment of its Internode brand.
The average analyst forecast was for Ebitda of A$1.92 billion from revenue of A$5.57 billion, according to data compiled by FactSet.
TPG, which was formed in 2020 by the merger of mobile provider Vodafone Hutchison Australia and broadband provider TPG, declared a final dividend of A$0.09, the same as last year.
On a statutory basis, TPG reported a net profit of A$49 million, compared with A$513 million in 2022, when the bottom line was boosted by a A$402 million accounting gain from the tower sale.
Mobile service revenue rose 9.3% to A$2.155 billion, which the company said was helped by the addition of 175,000 new mobile subscribers and higher average revenue per user.
“Our mobile business has achieved solid gains driven by new subscribers and the successful refresh of plans across our premium Vodafone brand as we position our business for sustainable growth in a competitive market,” Chief Executive and Managing Director Inaki Berroeta said.
The user growth came across a period that included November’s large-scale outage at Singapore Telecommunications-owned rival Optus. Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications provider, this month said it added tens of thousands of new users as a result of the outage.
TPG currently expects 2024 Ebitda of A$1.95 billion-A$2.025 billion, including transformation costs but excluding material one-off items. It reported 2023 A$1.923 billion of Ebitda on a comparable basis.
Write to Stuart Condie at [email protected]
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