Employee of the Week-- NZT

Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (NZT) was up 4.5% for the week.  We acquired NZT on April 28th primarily for the non-dollar dividend so this bump up is a pleasant surprise in a forgettable week.  The primary reason for writing this entry is to determine what might be behind the advance.

On April 20th, NZT and partner Vodafone  for a government contract to deliver broadband telecommunications services to rural new Zealand.  Under this agreement with the Government, Vodafone and Telecom will build and deliver open-access rural broadband infrastructure that delivers 100 Mbps connections to approximately 750 rural schools and 6 hospitals, and a minimum 5Mbps fixed and wireless broadband service to more than 80% of rural homes and businesses.
Telecom will build the fixed infrastructure and Vodafone will build the wireless towers.  Government funding for the project is NZ $285 million.

Reuters reports that longer term, NZT has offered to split the company in order to compete for the NZ $5.9 billion nationwide broadband network funding.  The government's proposal prevents retailers of phone and Internet service providers, such as NZT, from building the network.   

The only other news I could uncover is Street Wire upgraded NZT from Hold to Buy. 

Here's the chart.