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Telstra Group Ltd (ASX:TLS) told investors that overall profits had fallen nearly 13% during the 2024 financial year, while earnings were also down more than 4 %.
In its full year financial report to the market, the telco giant said NPAT (net profit after tax) had come in at $1.8 billion in the year to June 30, 2024 – this registering a 12.8% drop from the same time last year.
For the same period, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) came in at $7.5 billion – a 4.2% fall compared to the 2023 financial year.
The company witnessed income growth in six of its seven major sectors throughout the year: Telstra Consumer, Telstra Business, Telstra International, Telstra Infra Co, Networks IT and Product, and All Other.
However, earnings in the Telstra Enterprise Australia fell by 2.2% to $4,586 million for the period, including a 0.6% fall in mobile income and 2.8% drop in Fixed-Enterprise income across DAC (data and connectivity) and NAS (network and services).
Growth in income from mobile phone services was also evident throughout the year – rising 4.3% and contributing to Telstra Consumer sector’s overall growth of 2.3% (to $10,722 million). However, growth in this sector was also offset by a fall of 1.7 per cent in Fixed – C&SB (consumer and small business) income.
CEO Vicki Brady responded positively to the results, saying they revealed a third consecutive year of underlying growth and key indicators on-target.
“Our mobiles business has continued to perform very strongly, with EBITDA growth of over $400 million,” she said.
“This growth was driven by more people choosing our network, with more than 560,000 net new handheld customers, along with ARPU growth. Mobile services revenue grew by 5.6 per cent and our mobile business underpinned our overall underlying earnings growth.
“Our infrastructure business also grew, reflecting ongoing demand for our assets. InfraCo Fixed and Amplitel EBITDA grew by around $150 million in aggregate, further strengthening our confidence in our infrastructure growth ambitions.
“Our intercity fibre network is an investment in Australia’s future growth, connectivity, and digital prosperity.”
However, she added that increased spending on the Enterprise sector had dragged earnings down.
“While most parts of our business performed strongly, Fixed Enterprise is clearly a long way from where we need it to be,” she said.
“We commenced action during the year to address challenges in our Enterprise business, and took additional action on cost overall.
“These necessary choices and decisions in Enterprise, together with our additional action on cost, mean we are confident in achieving our $350 million cost reduction ambition by the end of FY25.”
Telstra Group was trading at $3.87.
