Telus Q2 profit drops to $315 million

Telus Corp. says its net income fell 39 per cent in its latest quarter despite an uptick in revenues.

The Vancouver-based company says it earned $315 million or 23 cents per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with $520 million or 43 cents per share a year earlier.

Adjusted profits were $316 million or 25 cents per share, versus $416 million or 35 cents per share in the second quarter of 2019.

The company says its earnings decline reflects the COVID-19 pandemic that lowered wireless roaming revenue, and was partly offset by higher wireline data service margins from business acquisitions and cost-cutting programs.

Telus was expected to report 26 cents per share in adjusted earnings on $3.56 billion of revenues, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

It recorded 61,000 mobile phone net additions and 47,000 wireline customer additions with a historically low postpaid customer loss of 0.59 per cent.

"Telus achieved resilient financial and operational results in the second quarter, characterized by strong customer growth of over 141,000 net new additions, despite the challenges we faced in the quarter with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic," said CEO Darren Entwistle.