Most of their leases would have clauses in them requiring the...

Most of their leases would have clauses in them requiring the retail Banner to remain as a Telstra store.
Landlords want to maintain a premium environment therefore don't want their tenants to simply change from a 'premium' telstra store to a 'Crazy Jims $2 Phone Cover' shop overnight...
in saying that, the landlords relationship is with their tenant (ie. VTG not Telstra), so they would generally want to maintain a good relationship with VTG and be open to potential changes which help improve / or save their retail business - no big landlord wants a tenant going into administration... 100 stores of missing rent will add up pretty quickly.

i'm banking on the fact that VTG will doing everything in its power to continue a profitable relationship with TLS.
and that TLS will do everything in its power to improve its profitability with VTG, without putting them in a tenuous position or harming their consumer image.

and that, my friends, is the basis of my sentiment.