Telstra (ASX:TLS) has lifted its final dividend for the 2023-24 financial year to nine cents a share, despite a 13% drop in profit due to higher costs resulting from job cuts and restructuring.
The increase from 8.5 cents a share a year ago brings the full-year payout to 18 cents a share, in line with market expectations.
This is still well short of the halcyon days of 2018 when 22 cents a share was paid out to shareholders.
Telstra reported an annual net profit decline of 13% to $1.79 billion after taking hundreds of millions of dollars in write-downs on its troubled enterprise business and incurring costs associated with slashing 2,800 jobs.
These higher costs offset a slight increase in group revenue and strong earnings from Telstra's booming mobile business, which the restructuring is intended to enhance and protect.
Revenue edged up 1% to $22.9 billion, while the company also took a $311 million write-down on its enterprise business, which services large companies and government departments.
“While most parts of our business performed strongly, Fixed Enterprise is clearly a long way from where we need it to be,” CEO Vicki Brady said in Thursday’s statement to the market. “We commenced action during the year to address challenges in our Enterprise business and took additional action on cost overall.”
Brady said Telstra's mobile business continued to grow strongly. “This growth was driven by more people choosing our network, with more than 560,000 net new handheld customers, along with ARPU [average revenue per user] growth. Mobile services revenue grew by 5.6 per cent, and our mobile business underpinned our overall underlying earnings growth,” she said on Thursday.
