Telkom increases operating revenue
Announcing Telkom Group’s annual results for the year ended March 31, 2008, CEO Reuben September today said that operating revenue and EBITDA increased by 9% and 4.2% respectively, owing to strong growth in its mobile operations.
“Both the fixed-line and mobile segments are operating in changing and challenging business environments. As mobile voice growth slows, the mobile segment is aggressively expanding into data and particularly corporate data,” said September:
Highlights of the Group financial key performance areas include:
- Operating revenue up 9.0% to R56.3 billion;
- Group EBITDA increased by 4.2% to R20.6 billion;
- Group EBITDA margin decreased from 38.3% to 36.6%;
- Operating profit increased by 0.1% to R14.5 billion
- Net Debt to Equity increased to 49.9% from 31.3% at March 31, 2007
- Cash generated from operations increased by 3.6% to R21.3 billion
- Headline earnings per share decreased by 4.4% to 1,634.8 cents per share;
- Ordinary dividend increased by 10.0% to 660 cents per share payable on July 7, 2008
“The fixed-line is challenged with increased competition and pricing pressures in its traditional high margin, predominantly retail markets. The above business developments, amongst others, are evident in the drop in fixed-line domestic local and long distance voice revenue from R7.6 billion at March 31, 2007 to R6.3 billion at March 31, 2008.” he said.
September added that growth in demand is in the lower margin, wholesale and data markets. This necessitates increased investments in the provisioning of backbone networks and support systems.
He added: “The fixed-line segment is gearing up to deliver the full suite of converged services to a far greater extent in South Africa and Africa. Given its ubiquity and network management capabilities, we believe the fixed-line segment is well positioned to deliver data and value-added data managed services at speeds and quality levels superior to its competitors.”
Telkom financial results discussion
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