Australia's Telstra: 1Q Rev Grew 1.8%
Updated: Monday, October 22, 2001 08:57 PM ET
SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Telstra Corp. (TLS, news, msgs), Australia's largest telecommunications company, said Tuesday that revenue from its core domestic operations in the first quarter ended Sept. 30 grew 1.8% to A$4.62 billion compared to the corresponding period last year.
Telstra also said it expects growth in the telecommunications sector to remain in "low single digits" for at least the next two quarters.
Chief executive Ziggy Switkowski foreshadowed slowing growth at market briefing on July 13, when he said Telstra's revenue growth was likely to be flat until the end of 2001.
Following Switkowski's comment, analysts adjusted forecasts to factor in marginal growth for the first half of the year and about 4% growth in the second half of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2002.
The market consensus is for revenue growth of about 6% for the full year, which suggests their estimates are above the latest market guidance.
At 0106 GMT, Telstra was down 11 cents, or 2.2%, at A$4.91 on relatively heavy volume of 6.7 million shares.
Before Telstra's statement to the Australian Stock Exchange the shares were down eight cents at A$4.94.
"While growth is steady, and indeed pleasing in the current environment, the contributions from key business drivers are shifting," Telstra said.
"The wireless business is reassuringly robust; wireline market shares and churn have stabilized but wholesale revenue growth has reduced substantially reflecting much slower industry growth," it said.
"Although we are seeing strong growth in new generation data products, aggregate data revenue growth remains flat on the corresponding quarter as a result of platform migration, competitive corporate contracts and lower bandwidth prices," Telstra said.
However, the key future growth areas of data and Internet services are seeing continued demand.
Demand for new generation products and services grew 42.2% during the quarter. While revenue growth from the overall data and internet unit remains flat compared to the same quarter last year, growth is up from the third and fourth quarters of the 2000-01 fiscal year ended June 30, 2001.
The market guidance relates to Telstra's core domestic operations and excludes its joint venture in Asia with Hong Kong's Pacific Century CyberWorks. Ltd. ( H.PCW, news, msgs)
Switkowski is scheduled to brief journalists and analysts via a teleconference at 0130 GMT Tuesday.
-By Graham Morgan, Dow Jones Newswires;
61-2-8235-2962; graham.morgan@dowjones.com DOW JONES NEWS 10-22-01 08:57 PM |
