Telstra Group Limited (TLS) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to Telstra's results announcement for the half year ended 31 December 2023. I am joining today from the lands of the Gadigal people. On behalf of Telstra, I acknowledge and pay my respects to the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and recognise the continued connection Australia's First Nation peoples have to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to elders past and present. I will make some brief comments on our key highlights. Michael will then take you through the financials, after which I will summarise our progress against our T25 strategy and areas of focus for the second half of FY24. We'll then take questions from analysts, investors and media. Our results for the half show continued growth in reported and underlying earnings, with positive momentum across many of our key indicators. This momentum is also reflected in the progress we have made in the second year of delivery against our T25 strategy. focusing on the key highlights for the half. Total income was up 1.2% and EBITDA increased by 3.8%, driven by momentum from our mobiles business. Underlying EBITDA increased by 121 million or 3.1% to 4 billion. EBITDA growth flowed through to an 11.5% increase in net profit after tax to $1 billion. Earnings per share increased 12% to $0.084. Underlying ROIC increased to 7.8% and above our cost of capital. Our episode NPS increased by 3 points over the last 12 months to 44. Overall, our T25 strategy is on track, including our growth ambitions in underlying EBITDA, earnings per share and ROIC. On the back of continued growth, the Board resolved to pay a fully franked interim dividend of $0.09 per share, representing a 5.9% increase compared to last year. The increase in the interim dividend is consistent with our c...