Australian telecom giant Telstra to axe 8,000 jobs

[SYDNEY] Australia's dominant telecommunications company Telstra Wednesday announced plans to axe 8,000 jobs - a quarter of its workforce - as part of a drastic new strategy to cope with an increasingly competitive industry.

The decision by the company, one of Australia's largest employers, is part of a shake-up targeting an extra A$1 billion (S$1 billion) in cost-cutting by 2022, on top of A$1.5 billion previously announced.

To create a leaner operation, it will also split its mobile and infrastructure divisions into separate businesses.

"We are creating a new Telstra that is able to continue to lead the market," said chief executive Andrew Penn.

"In the future our workforce will be a smaller, knowledge-based one with a structure and way of working that is agile enough to deal with rapid change.

"This means that some roles will no longer be required, some will change and there will also be new ones created."

The cuts come less than a month after Telstra said its 2017/18 earnings will likely be at the bottom of its guidance range of A$10.1 billion to A$10.6 billion, blaming increasing competition in mobile and fixed broadband.

The warning sent its shares tumbling to a more-than six-year low of A$2.71.

Telstra employs 32,000 people across 20 countries, according to its most recent annual report. Of the jobs to go, one in four will be executive and middle management roles.

Mr Penn said the company had to take action to stay on top in a highly competitive market.

"The rate and pace of change in our industry is increasingly driven by technological innovation and competition," he said.

"In this environment traditional companies that do not respond are most at risk.

"We have worked hard preparing Telstra for this market dynamic while ensuring we did not act precipitously. However, we are now at a tipping point where we must act more boldly if we are to continue to be the nation's leading telecommunications company."

INFRASTRUCTURE BUSINESS

Telstra has a range of businesses including fixed broadband, mobile, data and IP, network application and services, digital media and international.

Part of its new strategy will see it create a wholly-owned standalone infrastructure business unit from July 1.

Called Telstra InfraCo, it will comprise the telecom's fixed-network infrastructure including data centres, non-mobiles related domestic fibre, international subsea cables, exchanges, poles, ducts and pipes.

Its services will be sold to Telstra, wholesale customers and Australia's National Broadband Network, controlling assets with a book value of about A$11 billion.

"As technology innovation is increasingly relying on connectivity, the role of telecommunications infrastructure is becoming more important," said Mr Penn.

"There is virtually no technological innovation happening today that does not rely on a high-quality, reliable, safe and secure telecommunications network.

"In this world our infrastructure assets are becoming more valuable. By creating a new infrastructure-focused business unit we will better optimise and manage these assets."

Telstra also intends to "monetise assets of up to A$2 billion over the next two years to strengthen the balance sheet", and has set aside A$600 million in restructuring costs.

AFP