TelstraSaturn leaks cash

By RICHARD BRADDELL utilities writer

TelstraSaturn made an operating loss of $117 million on revenue of $127 million last year.

But the result, which was revealed in the Australian dollar-denominated annual accounts of Australian half-owner Austar United yesterday, show the company is ramping up turnover, with final-quarter revenue of $44.6 million, based on the exchange rate prevailing at December 31.

The one-off costs associated with the creation of the TelstraSaturn joint venture, which is also half-owned by Australia's Telstra, was cited by Austar as a factor in its net loss of $A319 million ($383 million).

The accounts show that TelstraSaturn's customer growth slowed in the final quarter, although that should change as the marketing of its new $200 million network in Christchurch gets under way in the current quarter.

In Wellington, TelstraSaturn had 32,000 residential telephone lines and 21,000 pay television subscribers. It also had 45,000 internet subscribers nationally.

The accounts reveal average monthly revenue of $32.05 for each of 98,283 revenue-generating units, or a total of $9.5 million in the final quarter. Every telephone, pay TV or internet connection is counted as a revenue-generating unit.

On that basis, TelstraSaturn's residential business would account for around 27 per cent of total revenue in the December quarter, with revenue from the business-oriented Telstra side providing the rest. It has 1500 business lines.

At year end, TelstraSaturn had assets of $571 million. Capital expenditure of $225 million included $139.5 million in the final quarter.