Hi Griz:
What I meant to say was that Telus's revenues on the long distance market did not change from the previous year.
There is an article in today's Globe and Mail by Dunnery Best. I have attached the relevant portion for your perusal.
"A dividend increase at Telus Corp. is also a reasonable call. Telus (previously known as Alberta Government Telephones) is sitting on the 400 million dollar proceeds from the sale of its 50-per-cent holding in Telecentral, a British cable operation. Of course, Telus could decide to invest in some other prairie telco (which narrows the field down considerably). Or the booty could fund a special dividend.
Sticking with the fundamentals, Telus currently pays out only 49 percent of its earnings in theform of a dividend, (92 cents on earnings of $1.88 a share), compared with 72 per cent ($1.36 on $1.88 of earnings)at BCE Inc., and 61 per cent ($1.32 on $2.15 of earnings) at BC Telecom. Soregardless of what happens with the Telecentral proceeds, Telus still has the wherewithal for a dividend increase.
Moreover, investors would realize that Telus is an attractive takeover target, if say, BCE develops an appetite for a prairie unit. All in all, Telus is a sensible investment, and a higher dividend is just one of the attractions."
Tom W. |
