KEY POINTS:
Outgoing Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung remains positive about the telco's Australian business despite the poor performance of subsidiary AAPT.
At the weekend, Gattung admitted the business had struggled but said that after the A$357 million acquisition of PowerTel, which will be integrated with AAPT, and a company revitalisation, the outlook was good.
AAPT, Australia's third-biggest phone company, has weighed heavily on Telecom's balance sheet.
In its last results, AAPT's underlying earnings - before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) - fell 58.6 per cent to A$24 million in the nine months to March 31.
The result translated into an operating loss of A$22 million, as revenue fell 5 per cent to A$853 million.
The telco has forecast its Australian business to produce full-year ebitda of about A$40 million after PowerTel's inclusion. That would compare with the A$75 million ebitda reported for the 2005/06 year.
"It is true we've struggled - there is no doubt about that," said Gattung, who steps down from the top job at the end of the month.
"But we feel positive about where we are in Australia.
"The project we've been working on for the past couple of years, re-engineering our customer service interface, was launched last month successfully.
"We have completed the acquisition of PowerTel. So we've responded to the situation, restrategised, replatformed, and we feel positive about where the business is going to go in the next couple of years."
Telecom shares closed up 6c yesterday at $4.68.
- AAP
