Vodacom South Africa reports growth

Vodacom has released its reviewed interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2024, revealing growth in service revenue, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), and operating profit for its South African operations.

Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub noted that the growth in service revenue, EBITDA, and operating profit in South Africa was due to the recent stability of the national electricity grid. This came despite pressure in the wholesale segment.

Vodacom South Africa’s operating profit grew by 2.4% from R9.62 billion in September 2023 to R9.84 billion in September 2024. EBITDA increased by 2.3% from R16.01 billion to R16.37 billion over the same period.

Joosub said South Africa’s subscriber base grew by 4.2% to 49.2 million.

“Driven primarily by beyond mobile services, the consumer segment and prepaid mobile data, service revenue in South Africa grew 1.3% to R31.1 billion despite pressure in the wholesale segment,” he said.

“By containing costs below inflation and delivering revenue growth, South Africa grew EBITDA by 2.3% while operating profit increased 2.4% on the back of a moderated investment into energy resilience.”

Vodacom said the consumer contract segment, prepaid mobile data, and beyond mobile services supported the growth of service revenue.

Mobile contract customer revenue grew by 3.6% to R12.1 billion, which Vodacom noted benefited from a contract price increase in the year’s first quarter.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) for mobile contract customers grew by 1.3% to R306, and the mobile operator added 113,000 new contract customers during the period to reach a base of 6.9 million.

Prepaid mobile revenue grew slightly less than the contract segment, growing by 2.2% to R13.4 billion.

“The result was supported by ‘more for more’ price adjustments implemented in the first quarter, which lowers the effective price per megabyte of data and supports data affordability,” said Vodacom.

“In the second quarter, prepaid revenue growth eased to 1.0% as we lapped a strong comparative quarter associated with high levels of load-shedding.”

It added 206,000 prepaid customers and reached a base of 42.3 million. However, Vodacom noted that ARPU was down in the prepaid segment.

The mobile operator noted that heightened smartphone penetration and improved network quality led to a 32.4% increase in data traffic. It said data customers reached 27 million, an increase of 4.8%.

“Smart devices were up by 5.8% to 32.0 million, while 4G and 5G devices increased by 7.9% to 23.9 million,” said Vodacom.

“The average usage per smart device increased by 26.9% to 4.7GB per month. Prepaid mobile data revenue increased by 9.2% (2Q: 9.3%) to R6.8 billion.”

Vodacom’s fixed service offerings also showed strong growth over the period, with fixed service revenue increasing by 16.7%.

“Our homes and businesses connected reached 185,000, while our own fibre passed almost 166,000 homes and businesses,” it said.

The table below summarises Vodacom South Africa’s interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2024.