NZ telco Chorus has reported NPAT of $NZ47m on revenues of $NZ947m for the year to 30 June 21. EBIDTA was $NZ649m
Net profit and revenue were down from $NZ52m and $NZ959m in in FY20. The company blamed the downturn on softer market conditions due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19 on broadband demand, together with competition from other fibre and wireless networks,
Chorus said its focus during the year had been on helping customers capitalise on the gigabit head start the fibre network had given New Zealand. Over the year, fibre uptake grew from 60 to 65 percent, with 120,000 new fibre connections across 100 or so broadband retailers.
Monthly average household data usage, over copper and fibre and including both downloads and uploads, grew from 350GB to 432GB over the year. Fibre customers consumed more, averaging 500GB in June, up from 436GB a year earlier.
Chorus CEO JB Rousselot said: “Despite the softer market in the wake of COVID-19, we continued our active wholesaler strategy and were pleased to grow total fibre connections to 871,000. We are well on the way to our target of one million connections next year.
“Today, there are about 140,000 homes and businesses that could switch on a fibre service in a matter of hours if they chose to, and another 280,000 with fibre at their gate.”
Regulatory concerns
The company expressed concern about the regulatory environment, saying significant steps remained in the Commerce Commission’s process to finalise the new fibre regulatory model by 1 January 2022.
“Two aspects of the recent draft price-quality decision that Chorus is concerned about are proposed capital and operating expenditure cuts, and the obligation of an additional, complex approval process for offering retailer incentives to promote fibre,” the company said.
Subject to there being changes to regulation or the competition landscape, Chorus has issue dFY22 guidance for FY22 of EBITDA: $NZ640 − $NZ660 million, and capital expenditure: $NZ550 − $NZ590 million.
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