Author: Gugu Lourie

JSE-listed retailer Spar said South Africa experienced unprecedented levels of electricity loadshedding which directly is impacting trading performance and profitability of its retailers. Higher levels of loadshedding are expected to impact retailer profitability due to the additional energy costs associated with back-up solutions required during loadshedding hours, said the retailer. “Our retailers have experienced a significant increase in operating costs, primarily driven by the increased cost of diesel required to run generators during the higher levels of loadshedding, coupled with higher repairs and maintenance costs, and product wastage, as generators occasionally fail under extended periods of usage,” said Spar. Spar estimates…

South African supper app VodaPay, which is operated by Vodacom, has launched a feature that makes the platform to look like a bank. Two new Deposit and Send Money services have been added to the VodaPay super app, according to Vodacom Financial and Digital Lifestyle Services. “VodaPay’s new Deposit and Send Money services support our intention to accelerate digital and financial inclusion. Both banked and unbanked users can deposit and/or send money from their VodaPay Wallet, securely, cost-effectively and instantly. By building broader, more convenient offerings onto VodaPay, such as deposit and cash-out networks, we aim to enable more people…

South Africa’s Telkom announced today that it has come through a year marred by unparalleled levels of loadshedding and an alarming number of incidents of theft and vandalism targeting network infrastructure. Despite these challenges, Telkom said its team replaced over 5 000 backup batteries and undertook repair work on over 1 600 sites, which was crucial in restoring services and maintaining network stability. The partial state-owned entity added that it had spent R655 million on diesel and back-up batteries in the year to end-March 2023 to ease Eskom’s load shedding on its business. Cumulatively, Telkom said there were 5 585…

Telkom has formally appointed advisors to drive the process to seek a strategic equity partner for BCX, its limping IT business that has been losing money for a few years now. BCX was founded by Benjamin and Isaac Mophatlane in 1996, and was later acquired by Telkom in 2015, in a deal worth R2.6 billion. Telkom announced on Tuesday that BCX had a challenging year but managed to maintain stable revenue levels at R14.2 billion in the year to end-March 2023. The company said the performance was driven by a 9.1% growth in the IT business, which was offset…

Telkom announced on Tuesday that the disposal of its masts and towers business, Swiftnet, is at an advance stage. Telkom also announced that Swiftnet continued commercialising its productive portfolio and saw marginal revenue growth of 0.9% to R1 304 million in the year to end-March 2023. The company said this was driven by construction of 66 additional towers and eight new in-building coverage solutions (IBS) sites. “Continued modernisation by mobile network operators (MNOs) on our sites, coupled with new base station sites and the deployment of 5G by our clients, grew revenue from continuing customers by 10.3%, mitigating the impact…

Telkom Mobile has increased its subscriber base by 7.8% to 18.3 million customers in the year to end-March 2023, Telkom announced on Tuesday. The mobile service revenue growth of 1.8% was supported by the growth in subscribers. “The post-paid strategy paid off as the post-paid base grew by 11.0% to reach the 3 million customers. The pre-paid base grew by 7.2% to 15.3 million,” said Telkom. “We extended our network footprint, using the newly acquired spectrum to enhance LTE coverage and launch 5G services,” says Serame Taukobong, Telkom CEO, said. “This benefited the mobile broadband subscriber base, which grew 9.2%…

Inflationary pressures and increased operational costs plunged South Africa’s Telkom full year headline earnings per share (HEPS) by 76.6% to fell to 134.6 cents from 575.3 cents in the previous year. The company also said HEPS – South Africa’s main profit gauge – was impacted by lower EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation). “This was due to a 19.8% decline in EBITDA and a 9.5% increase in depreciation, amortisation, impairments and write-offs*, partially offset by a lower tax expense compared to the prior year,” said Telkom. The company said it was also attributable to the impact of accelerated…

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) said on Friday that it intends to issue a tender to appoint a consultant to assist it in the licencing of the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) spectrum. ICASA said the consultant’s duties will include conducting an auction in several IMT bands. The auction of the IMT spectrum is expected to be completed in 2024. The amended Radio Frequency Spectrum Regulations mandate the market-based approach for efficient spectrum management. This includes the use of an auction process for licencing spectrum where demand exceeds supply. “This important process seeks to ensure universal availability of broadband…

JSE-listed retailer TFG, formerly known as The Foschini Group, said TFG Africa conservatively estimated to have lost about 360,000 trading hours in the 12 months to 31 March 2023 due to Eskom’s load shedding. However, as previously reported, the retailer estimates the actual impact to be more than double this figure (i.e. approximately 730,000 lost trading hours) as customer demand is significantly dampened by the associated disruption and inconvenience with reduced customer footfall before, during and immediately after load shedding periods. “We estimate the financial impact of load shedding to have reduced TFG Africa’s retail turnover by in excess of…

JSE-listed retailer TFG, formerly known as The Foschini Group, today announced a 6.6% increase in online retail revenue for the year ending March 2023. The retailer said online retail sales contributed 9.1% to the group’s total sales. TFG Africa’s retail sales increased by 17.2% compared to the same period in the previous financial year. The retailer added that TFG Africa’s online retail sales increased by 33.2% and now contribute 3.5% to TFG Africa’s total retail sales. TFG Africa’s outlet retail turnover, increased by 16.7% and now contribute 96.5% to TFG Africa’s total sales. “This region experienced heightened consumer pressure, unprecedented…