Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady took home $6.8 million last year – an 11 per cent increase – despite a fall in revenue at the country’s largest telecoms business and a marginal rise in profits over the last financial year.
Telstra reported revenue of $22.9 billion, down 0.8 per cent, in the year to June 30, and profit of $2.4 billion, up 2.7 per cent. Earnings per share rose 5.3 per cent to 19.9¢.
Mobile revenue grew 4.8 per cent to $8.9 billion after the company introduced its annual price hikes, lifting its average revenue per user to $45.30 a month. It grew the number of mobile customers by 274,000, though the vast majority were through wholesale – brands that use Telstra’s network.
“Our mobile service revenue grew across all products – Postpaid, Prepaid and Wholesale handheld, mobile broadband and (Internet of Things). We delivered average revenue per user growth across all categories, brands and segments, and mobile users grew by over 270,000 or 1.9 per cent,” Brady said.
Fixed service income fell 3 per cent to $4.2 billion, due to a drop in the number of customers. Its fixed enterprise business income fell 8 per cent to $3.2 billion, its international arm income fell 11 per cent to $2.3 billion, and its InfraCo infrastructure arm rose 3.4 per cent to $4.3 billion.
The company also told investors that it had signed long-term contracts for its nationwide Aura fibre network, subsea cables and long-haul fibre assets with Google, Amazon Web Services, Firmus and Microsoft.
Telstra’s annual report reveals Brady’s pay rose from $6.2 million to $6.8 million.
The telco has been reeling after timers in two of its data centres reset, triggering a nationwide outage that downed mobile services, trains and payment systems.
Telstra has announced a further $1 billion share buyback after finishing a $1.25 billion buyback in June. It announced a final dividend of 10.5¢ a share, taking its full-year dividend to 21c, 90.5 per cent franked.
Source: https://www.afr.com/companies/telecommunications/telstra-ceo-vicki-brady-banks-pay-rise-as-revenue-languishes-20260812-p60np1