Spark's headquarters in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
Spark's half-year profit has fallen by more than three-quarters, with the company blaming the country's deep recession for its tough result.
Key numbers for the six months ended December compared with a year ago:
- Net profit after tax $35m vs $157m
- Revenue $1.94b vs $1.98b
- Underlying profit excluding one-offs $448m vs $530m
- Interim dividend 12.5 cents per share v 13.5 cps
Spark chair Justine Smyth referred to its October market update, saying the company was experiencing "one of the longest and deepest recessionary periods in recent history".
"Since that time, we have seen no improvement in these conditions, and while there has been movement on monetary policy, this is yet to flow through to any meaningful change in consumer or business spending," Smyth said.
The telco's revenue fell on the back weakness from mobile, IT services, and legacy voice, though it was partially offset by growth in mobile devices, cloud, data centres and Internet of Things.
Excluding one-off costs of $29 million relating to its operating model transformation, underlying profit fell 16 percent to $448m, and its adjusted net profit fell 64 percent to $56m.
In a sign tough conditions were persisting, Spark further reduced its full-year underlying profit guidance range from $1.12 -1.18 billion to $1.04-1.1b.
Spark chair Justine Smythe and chief executive Jolie Hodson. Photo: Supplied
Chief executive Jolie Hodson said it was focused on improving mobile - where it remained the market leader, reducing costs, and data centres.
"Mobile is central to our business, and we remain the market leader by some distance. This is not something we take for granted, and we have a strong pipeline of new products and campaigns that are proving popular with our customers," Hodson said.
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