Tesltra results: Autohome divestment boosts profit 35%

Telstra reported an impressive headline result with reported profit surging 36% to A$5.8bn. However, this included a ~A$2bn gain on the divestment of AutoHome; continuing profits were down 7% YoY to A$3.8bn. Operating cash flow and free cash flow grew strongly and allowed TLS to increase the final dividend to 15.5cps fully franked. Mobile EBITDA was up 3.2% YoY. NAS and Global connectivity reported 112% and 88% YoY EBITDA growth, respectively. Negatives were; fixed EBITDA declined 4.5% YoY, and Data & IP EBITDA declined 5.5%. FY16 included the divestment of AutoHome, so we’ve rebased our FY16 forecasts on updated numbers. We’ve incorporated TLS's guidance for CapEx at 18% of revenue. The net result is our free cash flow forecast declines 3.4% in FY17. On a like-for-like basis, we now forecast 4% normalised EPS growth for FY17. Read the full story for more detail, including our analyst rating: (VIEW LINK)