Telstra to cut over 600 Sensis jobs as it goes digital: Midday roundup

Telstra is cutting hundreds of jobs from its beleaguered Yellow Pages Sensis business as part of the company’s digital transition.

Sensis managing director John Allen said in a statement this morning 648 jobs will be cut as the company undergoes restructuring.

The news comes just two weeks after Telstra posted a record $1.6 billion half-yearly profit.

Allen says Telstra will continue to produce Yellow and White Pages for those who rely on its directories.

“Until now we have been operating with an outdated print-based model – this is no longer sustainable for us.

“As we have made clear in the past, we will continue to produce Yellow and White Pages books to meet the needs of customers and advertisers who rely on the printed directories, but our future is online and mobile where the vast majority of search and directory business takes place.”

Retail Food Group posts strong profits

Retail Food Group has this morning announced a 10.5% increase in half-yearly profits to $16.5 million.

The strong results follow a 21.2% increase in total revenue to $60 million.

Following the results, RFG announced an interim fully-franked dividend of 9.5 cents per share.

RFG chief executive Tony Alford said in a statement the performance reflected the company’s focus on reinvigoration, strengthening of supply chain models and franchisee support systems.

“RFG’s encouraging first-half result can be attributed to enhancing and maximising the transformation, consolidation and re-modelling of RFG’s Brand Systems,” Alford says.

Former SMSF advisor jailed for 18 months

A former self-managed superannuation fund advisor Craig Dangar has been sentence to 18 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to two charges of financial advantage by deception in the NSW District Supreme Court.

The charges were brought by ASIC following an investigation into Dangar’s conduct between January 2004 and September 2007 while he was employed to provide superannuation advice to trustees of self-managed superannuation funds, and compliance advice to accounting firms.

Dangar pleaded guilty to obtaining a financial advantage of $250,000 by recommending two clients purchase a portion of his shares in Morris Finance Ltd, and misrepresenting the true owner of the shares and their likelihood they would increase in value.

Shares fall on opening

Australian shares dropped on opening today because of falling commodity prices impacting upon resources stocks.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 46.7 points to 5052 at midday.

Brokers reported a computer glitch at the ASX delayed the reporting of key market indices at the start of trade today, but the problem was fixed by 10.30am.