By Stuart Condie


SYDNEY--Telstra raised its dividend after first-half earnings improved by 3.8%, helped by a large increase in the number of users on its mobile network across a period that included a large-scale outage at one of its rivals.

Australia's largest communications provider on Thursday reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the six months through December of 4.00 billion Australian dollars (US$2.58 billion), compared with A$3.86 billion a year ago.

The average analyst forecast had been A$4.04 billion, according to data compiled by FactSet.

On an underlying basis, Telstra reported Ebitda of A$4.0 billion. It said it expects underlying Ebitda of between A$8.2 billion and A$8.3 billion for the whole of fiscal 2024, lowering the top end of its previously issued guidance range from A$8.4 billion.

Statutory net profit rose by 11% to A$964 million as revenue rose by 1.2% to A$11.72 billion. The board raised its final dividend to 9.0 Australian cents per share, from 8.5 Australian cents.


Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-14-24 1603ET