{"id":89407,"date":"1999-12-31T00:22:00","date_gmt":"1999-12-30T13:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartoffice.com.au\/optus-resilient-despite-5-profit-slump-losing-85k-customers\/"},"modified":"1999-12-31T00:22:00","modified_gmt":"1999-12-30T13:22:00","slug":"optus-resilient-despite-5-profit-slump-losing-85k-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/optus-resilient-despite-5-profit-slump-losing-85k-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Optus &#8216;Resilient&#8217; Despite 5% Profit Slump, Losing 85K Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Telco No.2 remains bullish as reports what it says are &#8220;resilient&#8221; results in the face of &#8220;intense&#8221; competition.<\/p>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">Optus financial highlights for the current quarter to the end of June include earnings before tax (EBITDA) up 1% to $560 million, and underlying net profit A$174 million &#8211; a 3% jump.&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">However, this was before exceptional items worth $18m, &#8220;ex-gratia payment&#8221; arising from workforce cutbacks.<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">Total net profit after tax fell by 5% year-on-year to $161m compared to $170m the same quarter a year ago.&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/p>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">SingTel owned telco&#8217;s mobile business did well with total revenue rising 5% to $1.49 billion.&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">&#8220;Mobile growth was underpinned by continued postpaid customer growth, with 113,000 postpaid net&nbsp;<\/font><\/font><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">additions this quarter,&#8221; it said. &nbsp;There are now 4.89m Optus post paid customers.&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">This was on the back of several major smartphone launches including the Samsung Galaxy S II and the release of the white iPhone.&nbsp;<br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The number of 3G data customers also increased to 5.29 million, a 4%&nbsp;increase from a quarter ago, pushing total mobile base to over 9m. &nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, the number of pre pay users slumped by 85,000 &#8211; meaning total net gain were 28,000 users.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This compares to biggest rival Telstra, who netted a mass of new customers (1.6m in last year) and now has 43% total market share.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Read&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.smarthouse.com.au\/Wireless_And_Networking\/Broadband\/K8M4Q2R6\">We&#8217;re Back: Telstra Bouncy As Adds 1.6M Users, Leaves Optus For Dust Here<\/a><b><\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">&#8220;Australia has a clear No.1 mobile market operator &#8211; Telstra,&#8221; Nicole McCormick, Ovum&#8217;s senior analyst for Telco strategy, said, following the results.&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">However, Optus service and equipment businesses also fared well &#8211; revenue grew 3% and 15% respectively while EBITDA was said to be &#8220;stable.&#8221;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">Average revenue per user was lower, however, at A$45, reflecting what the telco says was &#8220;a higher mix of wireless broadband and increased value inclusions on selected plans.&#8221;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">Operating revenue overall increased 3% to $2.31 billion. This growth spurt was thanks to &#8220;continuing cost management&#8221; from all segments, which has included outsourcing and slashing management jobs, Optus said yesterday.&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">&#8220;Against the backdrop of a highly competitive Australian telecommunications market with competitors discounting prices and sacrificing profits, Optus delivered resilient results,&#8221;&nbsp;<\/font>Paul O?Sullivan, Optus Chief Executive said.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"NFBreak\" style=page-break-before:always contenteditable=\"false\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">&#8220;We remain focused on delivering profitable growth in a rapidly changing market and driving differentiation through innovative digital services and products.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<p><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">The Singapore owned telco cited Smart Safe back up mobile service and its &#8220;landmark&#8221; Optus TV Now mobile service and OfficeApps as helping it stay in the black.&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">In its &#8216;Business and Wholesale&#8217; sector, revenue was &#8220;stable&#8221; with growth in ICT and&nbsp;<\/font>managed services and satellite revenue. EBITDA increased by 1 per cent, with stable&nbsp;margins.<\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">It also cited some major contract boons including a four-year deal with Sydney Water, to deliver fixed, mobile services worth<\/font>&nbsp;$30m as well as a 5 year&nbsp;&#8220;supply managed services for NBN Co Interim Satellite Service&#8221; worth around $200m.<\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\">In consumer and SMB fixed line services, on-net revenue excluding Pay TV was stable<\/font>, although on-net revenue dropped &nbsp;2%. &nbsp;EBITDA grew 5 per cent to A$58 million, with&nbsp;margin expansion of 2%. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The improvement was driven by&nbsp;higher on-net revenue mix and yield management initiatives. &nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"NFBreak\" style=page-break-before:always contenteditable=\"false\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>SingTel Group revenue rose 7% to $4.61 billion with 2% growth in earnings in the quarter although profits fell to $916m &#8211; a 2.9% drop.&nbsp;<\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Telco No.2 remains bullish as reports what it says are &#8220;resilient&#8221; results in the face of &#8220;intense&#8221; competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-archive","category-services","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Optus &#039;Resilient&#039; Despite 5% Profit Slump, Losing 85K Customers - Smart Office<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/optus-resilient-despite-5-profit-slump-losing-85k-customers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Optus &#039;Resilient&#039; 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