TPG profits soar by 90 percent

Australia's second largest broadband provider TPG has boosted its six-monthly net profit by 90 percent, in its first financial results including the acquired iiNet business.

TPG today posted net profit for its first half of 2016 of $202.5 million, a 90 percent increase over the first half of 2015.

Underlying EBITDA grew by 56 percent to $368.8 million, which included irregular items such fees and costs arising from its acquisition and integration of iiNet.

Its consumer broadband subscriber base grew by 32,000 to around 853,000, pushing the unit's EBITDA up 7 percent to $125.6 million.

Its corporate division reported 12 percent earnings growth to $131.9 million for the half, despite a $4.5 million accounting impact from the iiNet consolidation.

iiNet brought in underlying EBITDA of $97 million for the half, representing 22 percent of TPG's total group earnings.

Following the iiNet acquisition, the TPG group now boasts over 1.8 million broadband subcribers and 473,000 mobile subscribers.

TPG said it expects to report underlying EBITDA of between $770 million and $775 million for the full year.

Vodafone backhaul deal

TPG also updated shareholders on the progress of its $1 billion deals with Vodafone for dark fibre and a wholesale mobile partnership.

In September last year the telcos revealed TPG would extend its fibre infrastructure by around 4000km nationally to provide dark fibre to the majority of Vodafone's cell sites.

The pair also said TPG would leave Optus to become a mobile virtual network operator of the Vodafone network, a deal that involved the migration of 320,000 customers.

TPG today said construction had commenced on the dark fibre build and the project was on track to have the majority of sites completed by 2018.

Capital expenditure for the rollout would be between $300 million and $400 million, TPG said, the majority of which would be spent in the next three years.

It is expecting at least $900 million in revenue for the 15-year life term of the deal.