(Reuters) -Australian telecom Telstra on Thursday forecast higher operating earnings for 2026, following strong contributions from its mobile and fixed connectivity units that bolstered 2025 earnings, while also announcing a A$1 billion ($654.60 million) share buyback.
Price increases on most postpaid mobile plans, along with a rise in mobile network customers, have strengthened Telstra's margins despite intensified competition from rivals.
"We are also increasing the capacity of our subsea cable network
to meet customers' increasing bandwidth consumption, growing artificial intelligence usage and data centre demands," Chief Executive Vicki Brady said.
The telecom firm's A$1 billion buyback, citing growth in earnings and a strong balance sheet, follows February's share repurchase announcement of A$750 million.
Telstra said it expects underlying EBITDA after lease amortisation between A$8.15 billion and A$8.45 billion for fiscal 2026, up from A$8.02 billion reported in fiscal 2025.
The company reported a 31% rise in profit to A$2.34 billion for the year ended June 30, up from A$1.79 billion a year earlier, aligning with the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$2.34 billion.
Telstra's focus on cost management, including the layoff of 550 employees as part of its ongoing restructuring of enterprise business and other organisational changes, has also supported its bottom line.
It declared a final dividend of 9.5 Australian cents per share, slightly higher than the 9 Australian cents declared a year ago.
($1 = 1.5277 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri and Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)
