Telstra earnings to soar, as it announces its financials for first fiscal six months 2012 later today, analysts predict.
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| Pictured: Telstra’s Androidland Store, Melbourne |
The telco is expected to announce a net profit of $1.52 billion at its earnings call in Mebourne later today as its mobile business continues to soar to new heights, although its Sensis directory and fixed home line business slumps.
Earnings before tax is expected to be in the region of $4.8bn on a revenue stream of $12.5bn, in line with previous company guidance.
Its mobile business, in particular, is expected to show a massive jump in customers as the country’s biggest telco feeds the current hunger for smartphones and tablets, afflicting the nation.
Deutsche Bank analysts are tipping Telstra added 507,000 new mobile customers (a 0.6% jump) and over 130,000 new broadband subscribers in the last six months of 2011.
Another analyst told the AFR its mobile business was “on fire” and may provide a “positive surprise” to 1.4m investors.
Telstra added 1.7 million new mobile customers including broadband and mobile in total during fiscal 2011, its largest ever.
And David Thodey’s telco has had a good run on mobile devices – last year, it started selling Apple’s iPad 2 for the first time and was the first telco here to sell a next gen 4G phone, the HTC Velocity, last month as well as opening the world first dedicated Android Store in Melbourne.
However, it was dealt a blow last week when an Australian judge ruled against it in a case against Optus and its TVNow Service, which makes a laughing stock of the millions Telstra paid in exclusive subscription rights for the AFL and NRL games.
Read Telstra Boom Times: 1.7M New Users, Sales +1.8%
