Telkom delivers solid results as its broadband strategy delivers

Salient features

• Underlying headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased 2.5% to 575.3 cents
• Underlying basic earnings per share (BEPS) increased 1.4% to 536.6 cents
• Group underlying EBITDA flat at 0.5% decrease to R11.9 billion
• Group revenue down 1.1% to R42.8 billion
• Negative Free Cash Flow of R2.1 billion (impacted by the spectrum acquisition of R1.1bn)

JOHANNESBURG – Telkom SA SOC Limited today published annual financial results for the year ended 31 March 2022 reflecting Telkom's broadband growth trajectory.

Openserve increased fixed data revenue by 5.5% largely driven by the growth in carrier links. Over the period, an increase of 16.6% in fixed data consumption was seen across the network with an increase of 52.7% in the number of homes passed at a connectivity rate of 46.3%. According to Telkom Group CEO, Serame Taukobong, this is in line with Telkom's strategy of accelerating the fibre to the home (FTTH) footprint while simultaneously focusing on connecting homes.

"In the second half of the year, overall fixed broadband subscribers increased for the first time in several years despite the decline in ADSL subscribers," says Taukobong.

Telkom Mobile increased its customer base by 10.5% to 16.9 million subscribers with 62.9% of the base using broadband services.Mobile base stations increased by 13.7% with 42.4% growth in 4 5G sites, reflecting Telkom's preparedness for 5G deployment.

As part of Telkom’s 5G strategy, Telkom targets to maintain a fibre backhaul ratio between 70% to 80%. As at end of FY2022, 68% of our base stations had fibre backhaul. The 22MHz of 3500MHz acquired in the recent spectrum auction enables Telkom 50MHz on contiguous spectrum to deploy 5G on our mobile network.

Swiftnet is expanding the range of products and preparing for the implementation of 5G by our clients. Over the period, Masts & Towers delivered revenue of R1.3 billion an increase of 4.4% from the prior year with an EBITDA margin of 70.4%. The EBITDA was impacted by a refined methodology of allocating property costs in the second half of the year. On a normalised basis, EBITDA increased by 2.7% to R1 021 million at a margin of 79.0%.

While BCX remains challenged with revenue declining marginally at 2.6%, converged communication stabilised with exceptional growth in Cybersecurity, IoT solutions, Innovation and Technology albeit from a lower base.

Despite a 1.1% decrease in revenue across the group, Telkom managed to deliver a stable EBITDA of R11.9 billion expanding the margin by 0.2ppts to 27.9%.

"This was achieved through various initiatives that introduced efficiency to operations while improving the customer experience," says Taukobong.

Telkom grew its earnings, with underlying HEPS and BEPS increasing by 2.5% and 1.4% respectively.