Key developments

Telco stocks in Australia and New Zealand have seen wide spreads in performance over the last 12 months. Economic growth is expected to remain sluggish relative to previous years, creating uncertain performance for telco equities.

Aussie Broadband

Aussie Broadband’s stock retreated 11% over the last month, with investors reacting unfavorably to its trading update during the month which featured a revised FY25 EBITDA guidance of between $125 million and $135 million, some $10 million lower than its previous forecast. The company also announced the release of ‘Buddy’, which will be a digital-first challenger brand aimed at disrupting the value-seeking NBN market. The company expects to invest $10m into Buddy through marketing and set up opex in FY25.

Telstra

Telstra shares rose 7.5% over the last month, with the company announcing that it will increase prices on most of its mobile plans by between $2-4 per month. This change helped to simplify ‘Telstra’s pricing approach to be more consistent across its products and services’. The price changes are due to come into effect between late August and mid October 2024.

Swoop

In the last month Swoop’s stock has risen over 20%, reversing last months fall after investors reacted unfavourably to its divestment of its wholesale voice business to Pivotel for $9 million in cash, which has since been completed. In July, the company announced that it has signed a key customer contract for its new Melbourne fibre infrastructure which is due to complete construction by the end of FY26. The customer contract is expected to bring in a minimum of $24m over the next 22 months.

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