23 Aug 2013

Telecom profit down 79.6%

12:17 pm on 23 August 2013

Telecom's profit has fallen dramatically after lower prices and volumes put pressure on revenues.

Net profit fell 79.6% to $236 million for the 12 months to the end of June, while revenue dropped 8.5% to nearly $4.2 billion.

Over the last year Telecom has gone through a major restructuring in the face of stronger, lower-cost competition.

Operating profit fell, which includes a one-off restructuring cost of $127 million.

Telecom has cut its workforce to reduce costs. Since July last year it has reduced staff numbers by more than 16%. There were 6600 full-time equivalent employees at the end of the 2013 financial year.

It says its move away from being a traditional fixed and mobile infrastructure company has had an impact on its business.

Telecom said on Friday that although the financial performance of the company was weaker, there are signs of growth in the customer base.

Telecom split-off its network business, Chorus, on 30 November 2011.