MELBOURNE, Australia-The Australian Liberal government has been forced to abandon plans to fully privatize Telstra Corp. in the face of a threatened revolt by members of its coalition partner, the National Party, and a voter backlash.
In a major policy backdown, the government said it would limit the next installment of the Telstra sale to 16 percent.
This would leave 51 percent of the communications giant in public ownership. However, the government insisted it still was intent on the eventual full sale of Telstra.
Meanwhile, Telstra has recorded Australia’s largest ever annual company profit of A$3 (US$1.7 billion). The result has allowed Australia’s largest company to pay out about A$1.8 billion (US$1.04 billion) in dividends to 1.3 million shareholders. The figure was 7 percent higher than Telstra forecast during its float last November and 17 percent higher than the previous year’s profit.
