Vodacom has gained 1.5 million more subscribers in South Africa in the first half of its financial year, taking it up to 35.7 million users in the country.<\/p>\n
This is according to the group’s interim results for the six months ended September 2016.<\/p>\n
Group revenue rose to R40.2 billion, up from R38.6 billion in the same period last year.<\/p>\n
Operating profit was also up at R10.7 billion (from R10.2 billion prior), though profit attributable to shareholders was down slightly to R6.4 billion (from R6.5 billion previously).<\/p>\n
The group declared a dividend of 395 cents per ordinary share, payable by 5 December 2016.<\/p>\n
Vodacom South Africa performed well, despite the tough economic outlook, with service revenue growing 5.6% to R25.5 billion, aided by strong customer net additions and increased data demand.<\/p>\n
Revenue grew 3.8% to R31.5 billion, impacted by a 5.2% decrease in equipment revenue as a result of lower sales volumes as consumer spending remained under pressure and the pricing of devices was impacted by the weaker performance of the rand against foreign currency.<\/p>\n
Data revenue grew 19.5% to R9.9 billion and comprises 38.8% of service revenue up from 34.3% a year ago.<\/p>\n
Vodacom said that 9.3 million of its data customer are now purchasing data bundles, while active 4G customers on the network increased 88.9% to 3.6 million with the average monthly data usage on smart devices increasing 14.4% to 629MB.<\/p>\n
“This has resulted in an overall ARPU uplift of 23.7% as customers migrate from 3G to 4G and 17.9% as customers migrate from 2G to 3G,” Vodacom said.<\/p>\n
“We added 131,000 contract customers, reduced contract customer churn to 5.1% and increased contract ARPU by 5.4% to R408,” Vodacom said.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, the group said that it will continue to weather short-term pressures, internationally, while continuing to invest in its network. The next big challenge is to gain access to much-needed spectrum, so that it can take on the growing public demand for data, it said.<\/p>\n
Highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n