Telstra’s share price has slipped more than two per cent despite a surge in annual profit, as a closer look at the books cuts a less impressive figure.
Telstra reported a bottom-line net profit of $2.3 billion for 2024/25, up 31 per cent from $1.8 billion in the previous financial year, when the telco took a more-than $715 million hit from restructuring costs in its enterprise business.
Underlying earnings rose almost five per cent to $8.6 billion, which was within its guidance range.
“We delivered our fourth consecutive year of underlying growth, reflecting momentum across our business, strong cost control and disciplined capital management,” chief executive Vicki Brady said in a statement.
Telstra’s mobile business drove most of the profit result, after generating revenue growth of 3.5 per cent, following price hikes on mobile and internet plans between $2 and $4 per month in August 2024.
Customers faced further mark-ups of between $3 and $5 from July 2025.
The earnings report also noted a 0.3 per cent reduction in costs, thanks in part to job cuts of more than 3200 over the financial year.
Telstra’s boss has denied the cuts are related to the company’s growing adoption of artificial intelligence, but noted its workforce was changing.
“We recognise this kind of change can be disruptive, even distressing,” Ms Brady and chair Craig Dunn wrote in a message to investors.
“While we will need to continue to evolve, our commitment is to always be transparent, consult with our people and act with care once we are clear on specific changes we propose making.”
More than 20,000 Telstra employees had completed at least one course at the company’s AI academy, and teams were considering how to implement AI in every job at the telco.
“We’re pushing hard in terms of how we apply AI and adopt it, and that starts with our people,” Ms Brady told shareholders at an earnings call.
“It absolutely starts with skilling.”
The use of the technology to achieve autonomous or “self-healing” networks was also a key goal, and the group’s Smartfix application had taken 1.5 million proactive network actions in 2024.
“That meant customers got a more resilient experience than they previously had on their service,” Ms Brady said.
Alongside the earnings announcement, Telstra announced a majority sale of its cloud computing business Versent to Indian tech giant Infosys, deepening a collaboration that began in 2024.
“By combining the strengths of our three businesses, we’re creating a unique proposition that will help Australian enterprises grow and innovate in today’s fast-moving, AI-driven digital landscape,” Telstra Enterprise group executive Oliver Camplin-Warner said.
Telstra declared a final dividend of 9.5 cents, taking the total for the year to June 30 to 19 cents.
It also announced an on-market share buyback worth up to $1 billion as a reward to shareholders.
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