Telus Q4 revenue climbs 5%

Telus 3-month TSX chart

Telus Corp. said Friday that its fourth-quarter revenues rose by 5.3 per cent year-over-year, but its bottom line was off by 29 per cent.

The Vancouver-based company said it made $285 million, or 90 cents a share, for the last quarter of 2008. In the same quarter of 2007, Telus made a profit of $400 million, or $1.23 a share.

Telus said that once tax-related adjustments were excluded from its 2007 and 2008 results, its net income and earnings per share were relatively unchanged.

Telus' revenue for the fourth quarter of 2008 revenue was $2.45 billion, up from $2.33 billion a year ago. The company said the growth was driven mainly by seven per cent growth in its wireless revenue and 13 per cent growth in wireline data revenue, which offset revenue declines for its local and long distance wireline revenues.

Telus president and CEO Darren Entwistle said its restructuring costs tripled in 2008 to $59 million, including $38 million for the fourth quarter alone.