John Linton ......which could be a little different this year.
The new year continues its steady start at Exetel with an increasing number of our operations meeting the DBD targets which is always a good thing. For most companies in this, and probably most other industries, the focus in July is on how to present the actual results of last year's activities in the best possible light....either to the ASX if they're public companies or to their limited number of shareholders if they are private companies like Exetel. In Exetel's case there are only three shareholders and they have access to all of the companies figures on a day by day basis as they all work full time at Exetel - so our shareholders never have any surprises - good or bad.
I will be particularly interested in Telstra's results this year to see just what their large expenditure on 'win back' activities delivered to them. I couldn't work out how the six month results could be described the way they were presented and it will be interesting to see the twelve month 'picture'. The normal comic turn will be the Eftel results which will have to explain how the company has been so successful it had to give away 75% of its shareholding for nothing to allow Dodo to inject enough cash (circa $2 million) to stave off its creditors (the $2 million didn't go to its shareholders). Doubtless it will be described as the latest successful Eftel acquisition rather than the desperate end to a poorly conceived and incredibly badly managed business failure.
As usual the iinet results will be presented in such a confusing way in terms of actual figures and such a hyperbolic way in terms of marketing spin it will take someone far more skilled than me to work out where the company is heading. Similarly the TPG results, which will be reported much later, will make for interesting reading. Although they are much more simply presented (previously no iinet like obfuscation) the underlying trends will be fascinating to read. Optus' twelve month results, from what I can gather, will only be 'saved' by their mobile growth (as usual) which is no bad thing but unexciting - to me. AAPT's and Vodafone's results will also be interesting in terms of how a major sale on the one hand and a major network problem on the other will impact their results. The only other results I am personally interested in are those for Macquarie Telecom - not for any other particular reason other they are reseller of communications services that are a guide to some of the things that Exetel wants to do in the coming year.
The overall 'performances' of the major companies over the past year will tell us a great deal about the most likely things to happen over the coming twelve months with the minor companies adding some 'colour' to that 'picture'. Of course, the year will be well under way before those results are published and the ABS six monthly statistics will be even later. I see the coming year in a far more relaxed way than I felt at the start of the two immediately previous financial years and I'm hoping that isn't because I have become so worn out by dealing with the unrelenting problems of the last 30 or so months that anything looks better. There are increasing numbers of moments when I am quite excited by the changes we are making and the new targets we are beginning to put in place. We have put in so much time and money into building the 'foundations' that will allow us to change our business it is a pleasure to think we might now in a position to make some real progress.
In the mean time we need to ensure we 'make our July numbers'.
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7 - the number of hills upon which the greatest city the world had ever seen were built.