Telecom, Telstra outperforming most other telcos - survey

By NZPA

Thursday 23rd January 2003

Telecom continued to defy the odds faced by most telecommunications companies around the world, a new report by IR Group says.

Telecom and Telstra outperformed all other telcos in IR's sixth monthly survey except for Japan's NTT Corporation which had a total return of 2.1 percent.

All others were in the red but Telecom had the smallest loss, returning negative 5.4 percent while Australian-based telco Telstra returned negative 14.9 percent during the 2002 calendar year.

In the previous survey, Telecom lead the pack with a return of negative 8.7 percent and Telstra was second at negative 9.65 percent for the 12 months to June 30.

The British-based IR Group measured returns by stock price movement and dividends paid.

"Our comparison shows the performance of the telecommunications sector is showing slight improvement but is still under pressure," the report said.

The IR report echoes a report this month from credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's which said that despite the eroding credit quality of many telcos, Australian and New Zealand's industries were steady.

It gave 75 percent of rated companies in the telco sectors of those countries a stable outlook.

"In general, Asia-Pacific operators have not experienced the same competitive pressure as European operators resulting in less ratings volatility," an S&P associate, Andrew Lally, said.

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