Telkom surpasses 15 million mobile users as revenue grows
Group revenue grew 0.4% to R43,222 million, of which around 65% derived from mobile business revenue, which grew by 41%.
DURBAN, May 24 (ANA) – Telkom’s mobile business has experienced significant growth over the past year, with mobile business revenue up 41% and its number of mobile users breaching the 15-million mark with an average revenue per user (ARPU) of R104 (about US$7.40).
This is according to the company’s annual financial statement for the year ending March 2021, published on Monday on Sharenet.
In a year that most have characterised as being riddled with economic uncertainty, Telkom said that it was pleased to have completed the year with “improved profitability, robust earnings, strong liquidity and a strengthened balance sheet”.
Group revenue grew 0.4% to R43,222 million, of which around 65% derived from mobile revenue.
“Through our capital investment in our data-led network and infrastructure, we have established and continue to strengthen broadband leadership across our businesses as well as build a formidable mobile business, becoming the third largest mobile business in South Africa,” Telkom said in a statement.
As the country entered a lockdown to help reduce the spread of the Covid-19 virus, employees shifted to a work-from-home environment which helped Telkom’s mobile broadband traffic increase 53.2% to 942 petabytes.
This resulted in a 41.0% increase in mobile data revenue and a 34.5% increase in mobile service revenue to R16,938 million.
“We will continue to invest in our growth areas and expect to spend between R8.0 billion to R8.5 billion a year while continuing to grow our revenue,” the state-owned entity said.
Following the outbreak of the virus, Telkom suspended its dividend policy for three years from 2021 in order to maintain a stable balance sheet and cash flow throughout the pandemic.
However, following the release of the annual results, Telkom said it was now in a position to consider changing it.
“Notwithstanding the uncertainty regarding spectrum auction, management believes that Telkom is in a position to reconsider the suspension of the dividend policy. Therefore, the dividend policy will be reviewed, and a new dividend policy will be communicated on release of the FY2022 interim results in November 2021,” Telkom said.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher