While the changes had been earlier signalled, changes have been made significantly faster than expected, Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms says.
In the past five weeks, Telecom has. -
• Reset the scope of Gen-i Australia to its original rationale.
• Reduced significantly corporate centre functions in management, HR, finance, legal and corporate relations.
• Tightened the management and operational staff levels in all business units.
''This will all mean a substantial reduction in costs. Now the company has to convince people to believe in the process that this will result in a lean and mean company. The clear message is that Telecom is not dragging its feet on change,'' he said.
The Otago Daily Times understands that some Telecom staff in Otago will be briefed next week on the new structure. Some jobs in larger centres have already been cut since Mr Moutter was appointed.
In a statement, Mr Moutter said Telecom expected to incur one-off restructuring costs of $70 million to $80 million in the 2013 financial year associated with decisions taken to date. The flow-on impact of those changes on to revenue and non-labour operating costs was uncertain.
Telecom believed that payroll costs - both in operational and capital expenditure - would reduce by $90 million to $110 million on an annualised basis.
Mr Moutter said Telecom expected to reduce its number of full-time equivalent employees from 7530 in December last year to 6300 to 6600 by June or July.
Labour communications spokeswoman Clare Curran had earlier predicted 1500 jobs would go from Telecom.
Staff levels were being reduced by constraints on recruitment activity, voluntary and involuntary redundancies and the transfer of roles to other employers associated with portfolio rationalisation decisions.
The company's adjusted operating earnings guidance for 2013 remained at $1.04 billion to $1.06 billion, excluding the one-off restructuring costs.
''This is an important step to build a leaner, more agile organisation with a competitive cost structure, setting us up to win in the market,'' Mr Moutter said.
