Telstra Corporation (ASX:TLS) has boosted its annual profit by more than expected, hiked its dividend and revealed a share buy-back.
Australia’s biggest telco’s net profit after tax rose 14.6 per cent to $4.3 billion in the 2014 financial year.
CEO David Thodey says the company continued to perform strongly, with growth in total income, earnings per share, EBITDA and customer numbers.
Telstra has also announced plans to return about $1 billion of capital to shareholders through an off-market share buy-back tender process.
Mr Thodey says the buy-back is the most effective way to deploy surplus capital from strong operational performance and significant asset sales.
A final dividend of 15 cents has been declared, bringing the full year payout to 29.5 cents.
