TeamTalk's first dividend payout $1.5m

By PETER GRIFFIN

Mobile radio operator TeamTalk turned a profit of $3.1 million in the year to June 30 and returned about half of it to shareholders in its first dividend payout.

TeamTalk, which operates a nationwide network of radio towers providing voice and low-speed data transfer for businesses, increased profit by 23 per cent on a reasonably flat revenue of $20.4 million.

The company was last week at the centre of probing questions during Telecom's annual meeting.

TeamTalk spent $36 million buying Telecom's radio business Fleetlink in May 2001, prompting questions about the involvement of Patsy Reddy, a director and shareholder of Active Equities which owns a 61.3 per cent stake in TeamTalk.

Reddy was on the Telecom board at the time of the sale and remains a director. Telecom's lack of disclosure on the sale price prompted a Shareholders Association suggestion that the sale price may have been too low.

TeamTalk managing director David Ware said Reddy's involvement had been managed to prevent a conflict of interest arising ... there was a "big Chinese wall in place".

TeamTalk's core radio transfer business had had just "a few per cent" growth, so he looked to diversify in the telco market, Ware said.

During the year, Telecom divested a 20 per cent stake it took in TeamTalk after the Fleetlink sale.

TeamTalk's debt at June 30 was about$19 million, he said, down from the $30 million when Fleetlink was acquired. It had cut costs by $1.2 million.