{"id":40186,"date":"2013-06-19T07:03:43","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T05:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=40186"},"modified":"2013-06-19T09:06:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T07:06:54","slug":"telkom-dismisses-cell-c-merger-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/40186\/telkom-dismisses-cell-c-merger-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Telkom dismisses Cell C merger talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Telkom<\/a> CEO Sipho Maseko<\/a> has dismissed talk of a potential merger deal with South Africa\u2019s third mobile operator, Cell C<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It follows long running speculation that Telkom and Cell C were currently \u201cworking on the finer details of a potential merger\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not in talks (with Cell C) Maseko told BusinessTech following the group\u2019s results presentation on Friday (14 June).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken with all the operators, not specifically Cell C,\u201d Maseko said. \u201cAll options are on the table,\u201d he added regarding possible future acquisitions.<\/p>\n

\"Sipho<\/a>

Sipho Maseko<\/p><\/div>\n

Telkom reported\u00a0a 3.42% increase in active mobile subscribers to 1.54 million in South Africa (2012: 1.48 million) in results for the year ended March 2012, having launched its mobile arm in October 2010.<\/p>\n

The telco saw a decrease of over 58,000 post-paid subscribers over the financial year to 375,938, while adding\u00a0118,879 pre-paid subscribers to 1.15 million.<\/p>\n

Blended ARPU (average revenue per user) for the period dropped 17% to R61.47 from R74.16 in 2012.<\/p>\n

ARPU from pre-paid increased 14.7% to R23.96 (2012: R20.89), while post-paid dropped almost 20% to R166.13 (2012: R206.83).<\/p>\n

Comparably,\u00a0MTN South Africa recorded a 15.4% rise in subscribers for the year ended December 2012, to 25.4 million. Blended ARPU declined by 9% to R122.<\/p>\n

Vodacom<\/a> meanwhile, saw a 4.9% lift in subscribers to 30.3 million, increasing by 1.4 million customers in the year ended March 2012. Blended ARPU declined 17.8% to R129.<\/p>\n

\u201cMobile needs a bigger solution,\u201d Maseko said. \u201cTelkom needs mobile\u2026the days of mobile only are over,\u201d he said pointing to a converged offering from the group.<\/p>\n

The chief executive told analysts at Telkom’s results presentation: \u201cI don\u2019t know if the winner will be mobile only,\u201d further suggesting that integrated players were more likely to survive the future telecoms landscape in South Africa.<\/p>\n

In April,\u00a0Cell C CEO\u00a0Alan Knott-Craig<\/a>\u00a0said that Cell C would need to be swallowed up by a \u201clarger group to compete with the likes of\u00a0Vodacom\u00a0and\u00a0MTN<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

In October 2012 Knott-Craig told BusinessTech that market consolidation is inevitable. \u201cMargins are thinning and smaller operators\u2019 ability to compete is being hampered by lack of scale,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, there will be some form of consolidation or partnership in the industry in the near future. However, any decisions on consolidation or future partnerships involving Cell C would be for our shareholders to decide upon,\u201d Knott-Craig said.<\/p>\n

More about Cell C and Telkom<\/h3>\n

Telkom\u2019s modest mobile numbers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C looking for partner: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Telkom and Cell C merging?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

No Cell C deal on the table: Telkom CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Investors knocking on Cell C\u2019s door<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

8ta-Cell C merger a new axis of competition: F&S<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Telkom has again dismissed talk of a potential merger deal with South Africa\u2019s third mobile operator, Cell C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":24323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[43,42,26,28,2414,65,27],"class_list":["post-40186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-alan-knott-craig","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-sipho-maseko","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40186"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40193,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40186\/revisions\/40193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}