UPDATE 2-Telus eyes job cuts as wireless growth slows; shares fall

(Recasts on planned job cuts, adds share price reaction)
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Shares in Telus Corp T.TO , one
of Canada's three big telecoms providers, fell on Thursday after
the company reported slowing wireless growth and forecast higher
restructuring costs as it announced job cuts.
Shares in the company slumped 3.4 percent in morning trade
to C$42.21, their lowest level in nearly three weeks.
The company reiterated its 2015 earnings forecasts, but
doubled its expected restructuring costs to C$250 million ($190
million).
It said it will reduce its workforce by around 1,500 people
over the next several quarters, with an eye to saving C$100
million to C$125 million a year. Telus had about 43,000
full-time employees in 2014, according to its annual report.
The company is spending billions of dollars to upgrade and
expand its wireless and fixed-line Internet networks as it
competes for wireless customers with BCE Inc and Rogers
Communications Inc RCIb.TO , and against Shaw Communications
for television and Internet customers in Western Canada.
The Vancouver-based company added 69,000 net postpaid
wireless customers, who typically spend much more per month than
those who prepay.
That was a sharp decrease from a year ago and fewer than the
roughly 77,000 customers both wireless market leader Rogers and
network-sharing partner BCE added in the same period.
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"A tougher double cohort quarter for wireless," RBC Capital
Markets analyst Drew McReynolds wrote in a note, adding
fixed-line earnings were a positive surprise.
The "double cohort" refers to the expiration of three-year
wireless contracts signed before the introduction of a wireless
code that essentially bans them, plus newer two-year contracts
up for renewal in the same period.
Telus said higher handset prices, a slower business market
and higher churn were to blame.
The company said net income rose to C$365 million, or 61
Canadian cents a share, in the third quarter, from C$355
million, or 58 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Telus earned 66 Canadian cents per
share.
Analysts on average expected Telus to earn 64 Canadian cents
a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Operating revenue rose to C$3.16 billion, in line with
expectations.
Telus' Internet-based Optik TV product helped the company
add 24,000 Internet customers, while traditional phone
connections continued to drop off.
Optik is steadily eating into Shaw's dominant share of the
television market in Canada's West.
Telus said it would increase its quarterly dividend by 10
percent to 44 Canadian cents a share.
($1 = 1.3165 Canadian dollars)