Telstra are up for a higher interim dividend, after their profits jumped 26 per cent to $934 million following the Optus data hack, with the first results under new chief executive Vicki Brady going public.

The total income of Australia’s biggest telco grew by 6.4 per cent, topping at $11.6 billion for the six months to 31/12/2022, with full year guidance reaffirmed at between $23 billion and $25 billion. Still, this is expected to track towards the lower end as a result of mobile hardware and fixed product revenues coming in lower than anticipated.

Overall, their interim underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are recorded as $3.86 billion, which is lower than their guidance of $3.89 billion. Their full-year EBITDA guidance is forecasted as between $7.8 billion and $8 billion.

“We estimate that the cyber incident at Optus impacted our net adds in the order of positive low-to-mid tens of thousands, split across consumer and small business and enterprise postpaid, prepaid, and wholesale,” Brady (above) says.

“Port-ins from Optus have now largely normalised.”