Telkom on Monday reported stellar performance from its mobile and fibre business.
The company announced that active mobile customers rose 10% year on year to 16.4 million with a blended ARPU of R91.45 for the quarter ended December 2021. This boosted the group’s revenue by 2.3% year on year to R4.4 billion.
“The prepaid market remains the driver of new connections, prepaid customers grew by 12.0% to 13.8 million. In the third quarter, we recorded 143 634 prepaid net additions,” the company said.
Telkom added that mobile data traffic increased by 7.9% year on year to 246 petabytes, supporting mobile data revenue growth of 2.6% year on year to R3.1 billion
Mobile broadband customers were up 4% to 10.5 million, representing 63.6% of active
customers, said the group.
Telkom added that capex investment of R2.1 billion for the financial year enabled improved
capacity and coverage with 7 082 base stations now integrated, representing a 15.4% year on year increase in base stations.
The company said Openserve continued with its growth trajectory in the fibre market.
“In line with its strategy to accelerate the FTTH footprint while simultaneously focusing on connecting a home, Openserve grew homes passed with fibre by 65.5% year on year to 801k,” said says Serame Taukobong, Telkom CEO.
Significant strides were made in the fibre business, with fibre to the home increasing by 65.5% year on year to 801 084. The number of homes passed and connected increased to 358 528, an increase of 38.6%, with a connectivity rate of 44.8%.
“The lower connectivity rate compared to the prior year reflects the lag between passing and connecting a home. Mobile broadband demand continued to grow from the significantly higher volumes seen in the prior year.,” he said.
However, Telkom reported that group revenue for Q3 FY2022 declined by 2.3% year on year to R10.7 billion.
In addition, the company said that the IT business remains challenging due to the lingering impact of Covid-19 and the global shortage of chips which led to BCX being unable to fulfil
backorders for IT hardware in the first nine months of the financial year.
BCX revenue declined by 3.6% to R3.8 billion because of global supply challenges.
“After the likely slight rebound in GDP for 2021, we cautiously anticipate that our stable corporate client base will review ICT projects that were previously delayed due to the pandemic,” said Taukobong.
Unlock value for shareholders
The value unlock programme relating to Swiftnet, Telkom’s masts and tower business, is on track, Telkom said.
“The board remains committed in pursuing its listing on the JSE before the end of the financial year. Substantial progress continues to be made and the board expects to make a further announcement regarding a separate listing of Swiftnet soon,” said Taukobong
“The board believes that a separate listing of Swiftnet will affirm the valuation of the masts and tower business and its contribution to the overall valuation of the Telkom
business, thereby unlocking further value for Telkom.
The proceeds of the value unlock are expected to be reinvested in the business and/or rebase the balance sheet and/or shareholder rewards.”
