New Zealand's largest listed company, Telecom Corp, said Friday its third quarter to March net profit rose 11.6 percent as mobile and high speed Internet revenues more than offset a decline in the fixed line phone business. It said net profit of 259 million dollars (190 million US) for the March quarter was built on a 3.4 percent increase in revenue to 1.41 billion dollars. Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung said the results reflected strong growth in the mobile, high speed Internet and information and communications technologies businesses.
"This progress is offsetting declines in calling revenues as Telecom's whole focus moves to new and emerging areas," she said.
Excluding abnormal items, third quarter profit was 231 million dollars, at the lower end of analysts' expectations of 231-243 million dollars.
Over the nine months to March, Telecom's net profit was up 8.9 percent at 650 million dollars, with revenue rising 5.5 percent to 4.26 billion dollars.
The rise in profit was also partly due to lower interest costs as a result of reduced debt levels and lower depreciation. Telecom is the dominant telecommunications provider in New Zealand and its Australian business AAPT provides about a quarter of total revenue although the unit's profitability has lagged in the competitive Australian environment.
The company said it was comfortable with expectations of a net profit before abnormal itmes in a range of 795-837 million dollars for the current year to June and of 811-880 million dollars for the following year. Telecom shares closed down eight cents at 5.93 after falling as low as 5.79 earlier.
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