Capitec Connect coining it

Capitec released its financial results for the half-year ended 31 August 2024, revealing that its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) product, Capitec Connect, contributed R69 million in net income.

This profit growth is impressive, considering it is nearly double the net income recorded for Capitec Connect for the entire 2023/24 financial year, which ended in February 2024.

The MVNO recorded a net income of R35 million during the 2023/24 financial year.

Capitec noted that the R69 million figure for the half-year ended 31 August 2024 is up from R4 million in the same six-month period the year before.

As of August this year, Capitec Connect had reached 1.2 million SIMs, of which 50% generated revenue within the past 30 days.

The MVNO also revealed data usage figures for the past three half-year periods, with usage reaching 5.1 petabytes in the half-year ended August 2024.

“Five petabytes is equivalent to streaming 1.7 million rugby games,” said Capitec.

The data usage figure is up from 1.4 petabytes in the same period the year prior.

Capitec also noticed that it had released some new Capitec Connect products during the six months in question, including expiring data bundles.

It previously offered non-expiring data purchases at a consistent rate of R0.045 per megabyte. However, it introduced expiring 24-hour, 7-day, and 30-day bundles to offer more competitive pricing for some data allocations.

It emphasised that its one-day bundles are valid for 24 hours, regardless of the time of purchase, and don’t automatically expire at midnight.

The MVNO product is proving a big success for Capitec. The R35 million profit in the last financial year represented a R42 million swing from the R7 million loss it posted in 2022/23.

However, it should be noted that the MVNO only launched in September 2022, with the R7 million loss coming in its first five months of operation.