Telkom on Monday reported a 10% rise in operating revenue to R41 billion for the year ended March 2017, boosted by the full consolidation of BCX, and solid growth in its mobile business.<\/p>\n
BCX was consolidated for the full year compared to seven months’ revenue in the prior year.<\/p>\n
Telkom said that mobile service revenue accelerated by 38.4% driven by a 47.7% increase in active customers as the demand for our mobile services heightens.<\/p>\n
Headline earnings per share (HEPS) grew 12.4%to 731.4 cents, however, basic earnings per share (BEPS) declined 1.5% to 749.1 cents. The main difference between HEPS and BEPS is the gain from property sales, the company said.<\/p>\n
Key highlights:<\/p>\n
Telkom said that the largest portion of its capex was deployed to its primary revenue generating areas, which are our fibre deployment zones and supporting the acceleration of\u00a0 mobile growth.<\/p>\n
“Fibre to the premises remains our key priority. We increased the number of premises passed to over 2.2 million, providing high-speed broadband connectivity using next generation broadband access network,” it said.<\/p>\n
This is an increase of 44.2% from the 1.5 million premises recorded in the prior year.<\/p>\n
Mobile investment was accelerated as the group re-farmed its 1 800 MHz spectrum to expand its LTE services to smartphones. “We invested in our mobile network by expanding the number of integrated base stations by 12.15 to 2,986 and increased capacity in existing sites to cater for the increase in data traffic growth.”<\/p>\n
“I am pleased with our solid performance, which was boosted by the integration of BCX and the robust performance of our Mobile business. We accelerated our capital investment to ensure future growth, focusing on fibre roll-out and our Mobile business,” said Sipho Maseko, group chief executive officer at Telkom.<\/p>\n
He said that Openserve continues to lead in the fibre market with more than 2.2 million premises passed with fibre, it said.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to focus on upgrading the legacy network to state of the art new technologies.”<\/p>\n
Maseko said that the mobile business continued to be the star performer of the group, and delivered service revenue growth of 38.4% and EBITDA of R660 million after four years of recording EBITDA losses.<\/p>\n
“This was a result of an expansion in our network, extension of our distribution channels and the launch of innovative products.”<\/p>\n
Looking forward, Telkom said it\u00a0 will continue to seek a sustainable growth framework for the group. “We intend to invest in a manner that enhances our financial sustainability to continue creating a platform for growth. This is the primary reason for the increased investment in fibre and mobile.<\/p>\n
“BCX remains a growth platform through which cloud computing, data analytics and Internet of Things, among others, will be delivered. Internally, BCX will be responsible for maintaining and supporting our IT production and development systems and will manage all data centre operations.<\/p>\n