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%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe would be profitable before reaching 15% market share, but that would be a solid position to be in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want to be profitable. We want to be sustainable,\u201d he said. Mendes also said that he would not initially focus on market share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said they would carve out a space for Cell C, where the business is worth far more than it was back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was Cell C\u2019s first full-year results since listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in November 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Against their last reported full-year revenues, Cell C\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Our FY26 results and FY27 guidance set out the measures by which the group and its executives are assessed,” a Cell C spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Those measures are revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA, subscriber and data growth, cash generation, and leverage.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s initial public offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt includes all the one-offs from this year. So, while this year\u2019s earnings number looks insanely amazing, it is actually not a true reflection of operational performance \u2014 it\u2019s not even physical cash,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kope said that while they did try to show investors a number close to reality through the second-half figures, next year\u2019s earnings numbers would be the most accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mobile operator also reported 17.1% overall growth in its organic subscriber base from 7.6 million to 8.9 million customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Separately, Cell C\u2019s mobile virtual network operator subscribers rose by 27.3% from 4.5 million to 5.7 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was largely thanks to Cell C\u2019s former parent company, Blu Label, agreeing to extinguish a face value of R4.1 billion in debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s single largest shareholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPC agreed to waive R3.6 billion of Cell C\u2019s outstanding debt, with the remaining nominal balance of R0.5 million converted into Cell C ordinary shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blu Label issued these shares at an aggregate fair value of R0.47 million, based on Cell C\u2019s pre-listing valuation of R9 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":561469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2096909096985186716","_sma_facebook_post_id":"120850204637381_1494223409396304","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18070326365550033","_sma_threads_post_id":"18135399010650958","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[102125,355,92781,58256,42,109,41],"class_list":["post-666071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-blu-label","tag-cell-c","tag-el-kope","tag-jorge-mendes","tag-mtn","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666071"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666322,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666071\/revisions\/666322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Operator<\/th> Revenue (Rm)<\/th> Revenue market share<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Vodacom<\/td> R92,237<\/td> 51%<\/td><\/tr> MTN<\/td> R51,090<\/td> 28%<\/td><\/tr> Telkom<\/td> R25,714<\/td> 14%<\/td><\/tr> Cell C<\/td> R12,641<\/td> 7%<\/td><\/tr> Total<\/strong><\/td> R181,682<\/strong><\/td> 100%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Cell C faring better, but not out of the woods<\/h2>\n\n\n\n