Aussie Broadband becomes the ASX's newest telco; gains 90pc on debut

The ASX has welcomed another telco stock to its ranks in Victorian-headquartered Aussie Broadband (ASX:ABB) – and it surged 90 per cent on debut.

The company is following in the footsteps of other telcos such as 2019 listees Uniti (ASX:UWL) and OptiComm (ASX:OPC).

While Aussie Broadband is still some way from the gains Uniti and OptiComm have made, it made an impressive debut, adding 80 per cent to its price out of the blocks.

Aussie Broadband (ASX:ABB) share price chart

Aussie Broadband’s difference

The company began in 2008 as part of a merger between two regional Victorian telcos, one of which was owned by current managing director Phillip Britt.

Aussie Broadband (ASX:ABB) boss Phillip Britt

Stockhead spoke with Britt this morning and he said his company was different to OptiComm and Uniti.

Those stocks are wholesale providers but his company directly services residential and business customers with NBN services and has its own fibre in the ground.

“We’re treading a slightly different path,” Britt said.

“For us it’s about building infrastructure and changing the way we connect to the NBN poise and growing our NBN base, so it’s quite a slightly play to what Uniti and OptiComm are doing.”

Aussie Broadband is the fifth largest provider of NBN services today and hopes to use IPO proceedings to expand its offerings.

In particular it hopes to complete a $67 million rollout of its dark fibre network and complete it by 2022.

Huge growth in recent months

Today Britt’s company serves 300,000 residential, small business and enterprise customers.

Approximately 100,000 of these have come onboard in the last five months.

This is all because of people working from home in numbers never seen before due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Britt says he expects this trend and consequently, company growth, to continue going forward.

“We expect to see similar growth to what we’ve had over the last few years,” Britt said.

“It [COVID-19] has resonated with how important broadband connection is and how much everyone is relying on it now.

“People will go back to offices, there’s no doubt about it, but I don’t think we’ll see this dominant [view] that you must be in an office to achieve your work objectives.

“And employers will be far more comfortable with flexible working arrangements which is going to further drive connectivity.”