NZ's Telecom H1 profit flat, announces rebranding

WELLINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - New Zealand's Telecom Corp Ltd TEL.NZ on Friday reported a flat first-half profit as the company restructuring's plan was starting to gain traction, and said it would change its name to Spark later this year.

Telecom posted an adjusted net profit of NZ$167 million ($138.51 million) in the six months to Dec 31, compared with an adjusted NZ$162 million a year ago.

It announced an unchanged dividend of 8 cents per share.

Telecom said it expected adjusted full-year EBITDA to be in the range of NZ$925 million to NZ$945 million, excluding the sale of its Australian AAPT business and rebranding costs.

Telecom offers retail fixed-line, mobile, and internet services after it split off its network business into Chorus Ltd

CNU.NZ in 2011.

It competes with the local arm of British mobile operator Vodafone , and a host of smaller mobile and internet service retail providers.

($1 = 1.2057 New Zealand dollars)

(Gyles Beckford)

((Gyles.Beckford@thomsonreuters.com)(+64 4 802 7977)(Reuters Messaging: gyles.beckford.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: TELECOM RESULTS/