Telecom's Gen-i has agreed to sell its Davanti Consulting business in a management buy-out the latest step to trim down IT services unit.

Davanti Principal Consultants' Justin Hamilton, Matt Farrar and Robert Carter have signed a conditional agreement for Gen-i's Davanti unit for an undisclosed sum, and is expected to settle on May 31, Telecom said in a statement.

Gen-i faces margin pressures and is switching its focus to big data and cloud-based services. Telecom has already announced 120 jobs were going from its Gen-i Australia unit.

Davanti employs 80 staff, and assets customers speed up change within their organisations.

The divestment comes after Telecom today told investors this year's earnings will be at the low end of a range between $1.04 billion and $1.06 billion, and faces bigger restructuring costs than anticipated.

Telecom is aiming to cut the number of full-time equivalent workers to between 6,300 and 6,600 by mid-2013, from the 7,530 on its books at Dec. 31.

That will trim its payroll costs be between $100 million and $120 million a year, the company said today. The figures exclude 140 workers gained with the acquisition of Revera.

Telecom's shares sank 4.2 percent to $2.51 today, and have gained 18 percent this year.

BusinessDesk