Shareholders of telecommunications company Chorus are set for a bigger pay day as it scales back spending on ultra-fast broadband.
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Chorus posted a jump in net profit after some one-off factors, which included sale of property, a legal settlement and a reversal of Holidays Act provision.
It was also building a pot of spare cash as revenue began to grow faster than expenses, so the interim dividend has increased to 14 cents a share with a solid lift in full year payouts over the next three years.
Chief financial officer David Collins said it would also buyback $150 million worth of shares to return excess capital.
"In our view the best initial use of the surplus capital from a shareholder value perspective is to buyback shares in the market, hence we have announced that buyback programme.
"Of course the board reserves the right to amend as time goes by if that is deemed to be necessary."
Chorus said the the buyback programme may run for up to 12 months from today.
Chorus chief executive JB Rousselot said he was pleased with the continued broadband growth in the company's fibre areas.
"The continued growth in fibre demand is a testament to the reliability fibre broadband is delivering through the challenges of the ongoing Covid pandemic.
"We saw the lockdowns and other public restrictions in the first-half ramp up the average data usage on fibre to new record highs of more than 600 gigabytes per month," Rousselot said.
Chorus said its gross capital expenditure for the first half of the year was $263m, down from $353m last year.
Fibre dominated expenditure, with the ultra-fast broadband rollout now 97 percent complete. Copper related expenditure was continuing to trend downwards, it said.
