Cell C CEO misses the mark
When Jorge Mendes was appointed Cell C CEO, he said their goal was to reach 15% revenue market share in South Africa to ensure the company was on solid footing. It is currently at 7.8%.
Mendes took the reins at Cell C on 1 July 2023. At the end of August 2023, he spoke to journalists and said they were developing a strategy that would require 15% revenue market share.
“We would be profitable before reaching 15% market share, but that would be a solid position to be in,” he said.
“We want to be profitable. We want to be sustainable,” he said. Mendes also said that he would not initially focus on market share.
He said they would carve out a space for Cell C, where the business is worth far more than it was back then.
At the time, Cell C had most recently reported R13.303 billion in annual revenue, which translated to 7.8% of the revenue market share.
In the intervening years, Cell C went backwards. Its revenue and market share declined year over year. While the company has turned a corner, it has still lost ground relative to where it was in 2023.
Cell C recently published its annual results for the financial year ended 31 May 2026, reporting revenue of R12.641 billion, up 13.49% from R11.138 billion the year before.
This was Cell C’s first full-year results since listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in November 2025.
The most recent annual results of Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom show that the companies earned South African mobile revenues of R92.237 billion, R51.09 billion, and R25.714 billion, respectively.
Against their last reported full-year revenues, Cell C’s revenue market share is 6.96%. This is an increase from 6.24% last year, but still lower than its 7.8% market share in 2023.
Asked whether Mendes still considered revenue market share a good metric of success, Cell C said it was a listed company now and reported its performance to the market through its published results.
“Our FY26 results and FY27 guidance set out the measures by which the group and its executives are assessed,” a Cell C spokesperson said.
“Those measures are revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA, subscriber and data growth, cash generation, and leverage.”
| Operator | Revenue (Rm) | Revenue market share |
|---|---|---|
| Vodacom | R92,237 | 51% |
| MTN | R51,090 | 28% |
| Telkom | R25,714 | 14% |
| Cell C | R12,641 | 7% |
| Total | R181,682 | 100% |
Cell C faring better, but not out of the woods
In its first annual results as a listed company, published on 21 August 2026, Cell C reported that its net profit after tax increased by 87.6% from R2.217 billion to R4.160 billion.
However, Cell C chief financial officer El Kope cautioned that this did not reflect real earnings and was due to the effects of the company’s initial public offering.
“It includes all the one-offs from this year. So, while this year’s earnings number looks insanely amazing, it is actually not a true reflection of operational performance — it’s not even physical cash,” she said.
Kope said that while they did try to show investors a number close to reality through the second-half figures, next year’s earnings numbers would be the most accurate.
“It will be the first time you actually see a full year from a consistent earnings perspective, which is not what you are seeing right now,” she said.
The mobile operator also reported 17.1% overall growth in its organic subscriber base from 7.6 million to 8.9 million customers.
Separately, Cell C’s mobile virtual network operator subscribers rose by 27.3% from 4.5 million to 5.7 million.
Cell C is no longer technically insolvent, reporting assets of R10.2 billion, up from R5.1 billion last year, while its liabilities are now R4.8 billion, down from R10.3 billion.
That was largely thanks to Cell C’s former parent company, Blu Label, agreeing to extinguish a face value of R4.1 billion in debt.
Following the restructuring and listing, Blu Label still owns 49.53% of Cell C through its subsidiary The Prepaid Company (TPC). Blu Label, via TPC, remains Cell C’s single largest shareholder.
TPC agreed to waive R3.6 billion of Cell C’s outstanding debt, with the remaining nominal balance of R0.5 million converted into Cell C ordinary shares.
Blu Label issued these shares at an aggregate fair value of R0.47 million, based on Cell C’s pre-listing valuation of R9 billion.
Loading ...