Spark profit grows 13% in FY17

New Zealand’s Spark has reported a 13% increase in net profit for the financial year ended in June as a result of one-off gains and improved mobile performance.

Net profit grew to NZ$418 million ($305.7 million), with revenue increasing 3.3% to NZ$3.61 billion. Mobile revenue grew 5.6% due to a 4.1% increase in high margin service revenue and a 4.3% growth in total connections.

Spark also increased its wireless broadband subscriber base by nearly 17% to 84,000, while the company increased its fiber broadband subscriber base by nearly 74% to 172,000.

The company has to date migrated more than a third of its customers off its legacy copper network and on to wireless broadband as well as fiber services via the state-led Ultrafast Broadband national fiber network project.

Fixed voice and managed data revenues meanwhile fell 12% to NZ$104 million due to ongoing substitution. Part of this substitution involves the migration of 11,000 voice only connections on Spark’s VoLTE service.

For the current year, Spark is anticipating a 0-2% increase in both revenue and ebitda, and a slightly lower capex spend of NZ$410 million.

The operator said it plans to increase its emphasis on wireless services and investment, and to develop its multi-brand strategy to better serve the low end of the market.