Telkom has reported that revenue for the nine months ended 31 December 2020 increased 0,9% year on year to R32 432-million, driven by a strong growth of 40,.7% in mobile service revenue.
The year to date earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are up 8,5% year on year to R8 641-million, year to date capital expenditure at R5 125-million and free cash flow at R2 825-million.
Sipho Maseko, group CEO of Telkom, comments that Group delivered a solid set of results where growth was challenging due to Covid-19 and the strained South African economy. This was driven by robust mobile growth, solid sustainable cost management and strong free cash flow generation.
“Telkom’s broadband led strategy and the decision to invest in infrastructure ahead of demand enabled us to meet the surge in demand for broadband services,” he says. “These results also reflect the success of our financial strategic objectives which include building financial resilience through sustainable cost management, cash preservation and disciplined capital allocation as we weather the impact of COVID-19 in our businesses.”
The Consumer business continues to be the driver of growth, where the Mobile business sustained its growth trajectory with mobile service revenue growing by 40,7% compared to the prior period to R12 582-million.
This was supported by 25,9% growth in active subscribers to 14,9-million and 23,9% increase in blended average revenue per user (ARPU) to R108.
Year to date mobile data revenue grew by 46,2% to R9 058-million driven by strong growth in mobile traffic of 64,4% and 27% growth in mobile broadband customers to more than 10-million. This was enabled by a 9.7% increase in network rollout to 6 135 sites.
BCX performance remains under pressure with revenue down 9% to R11 859-million. The year to date decline in revenue is lower than the revenue decline reported in the first half of the year.
Management maintains an annuity revenue mix of between 70%-75% which has cushioned the revenue decline.
To mitigate the impact of revenue decline in profitability, BCX focused on driving cost efficiencies, which resulted in improved YTD EBITDA compared to the first half of the year.
The pressure in the Openserve performance trends witnessed in the first half of the year continued in the third quarter of the year with year to date revenue down 12% to R10 233-million.
Gyro masts and towers sustained its growth with year to date revenue up 6,2% to R931-million.