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South African operator’s CEO says his company ‘ready for growth’ as three year turnaround plan comes to an end.
Telkom South Africa posted solid earnings growth for the 2016 financial year, aided in no small part by an improved performance at its mobile business.
The operator reported 16.1% growth in normalised EBITDA to 10.95 billion rand (€645 million) for the 12 months to the end of March, while earnings per share grew by 15.5% to 658 cents.
Operating revenue came in at ZAR37.33 billion, up 13.9%.
In a statement, the South African incumbent said the figures mark the successful end of the three-year turnaround plan it implemented in 2013.
"The business is now ready for growth," said group chief executive Sipho Maseko.
"We have executed well on the targets we set for ourselves three years ago which included: de-risking the mobile business, managing traditional revenue decline, focusing on operational and capital efficiencies and improving customer experience," he said.
Maseko described Telkom SA’s mobile business as "a star performer" over the past three years, reducing its EBITDA loss to ZAR43 million in 2016 from ZAR2.2 billion three years ago. "Since the fourth quarter, the mobile business has been showing sequential break-even on a monthly basis," he said.
Telkom’s mobile unit ended fiscal 2016 with 2.71 million revenue-generating mobile subscribers, up from 2.19 million a year earlier.
Its fixed access lines numbered 3.22 million at the end of March, down from 3.44 million, but broadband subscribers grew by 2.2% over the year to 1.03 million.
Future growth at Telkom will involve significant investment in its fixed infrastructure.
"In the year ahead, an aggressive fibre rollout is our number one priority, while simultaneously deploying our other capital resources as we focus on revenue generation and cost efficiency to grow earnings," Maseko said.
