Telstra’s profits and revenue were both down for the year, but outgoing CEO Andy Penn is attempting to spin gold out of the results.

Penn used his final full year results presentation to largely crow about the success of his T22 strategy and the “much simpler, more agile, more efficient, leaner, more customer-focused and more digitally-enabled business” he will leave in his wake.

Telstra saw revenue drop 4.7 per cent year-over-year, to $22 billion. Net profits were down 4.6 per cent, to $1.8 billion.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation dropped 5 per cent, to $7.3 billion.

Underlying earnings, however, were up 8.4 per cent. These adjusted figures leave out the $400 million spent to acquire Digicel, as well as declines of $700 million in one off NBN receipts, and $300 million in NBN commercial works.

Telstra’s mobile business was its best performer, with EBITDA up 21.2 per cent, from $3.3 billion to $4 billion. The company added 155,000 net retail postpaid mobile services, with a 6.4 per cent mobile services revenue growth.

“Our mobiles result was outstanding,” Penn said.

“Consumer & Small Business Fixed grew sequentially in the second half, Enterprise returned to growth and we started to realise the benefits of setting up our infrastructure assets as standalone InfraCo businesses.”

The company did, however, lose 81,000 bundled consumer fixed-line services during the year.

Penn’s final earnings presentation also marks the end of Telstra’s T22 strategy, and the start of its T25 ‘sequel’, which will be driven by incoming CEO and current CFO Vicki Brady (pictured below).

Penn considers T22 a success.

“When we launched our T22 strategy four years ago, we were in part responding to the operational and financial headwinds created by the rollout of the NBN,” he said.

“We were also responding to the technology innovation we could see around us and the growing rate of digital adoption.

“We knew we needed to fundamentally transform the company, to simplify and digitise, to set bold aspirations and radical interventions and that is what we have done.

“Telstra is a very different company today and while of course there is always more to do, we are much better equipped to face the very exciting digital future ahead.”

In the jovial spirit of things, Telstra also increased its total dividend for the year to 16.5 cents per share, which marks the first increase in the yearly Telstra dividend since 2015.

According to Penn, this “recognises the confidence of the Board following the success of our T22 strategy, the ambition in our T25 strategy, the strength of our balance sheet and the recognition by the Board of the importance of the dividend to shareholders.”

Buoyed by the dividend increase, shares have risen a modest 0.87 per cent this morning, to 4.04 cents.

Vicki Brady takes over as Telstra CEO on September 1.