Telekom yearly profits grow by a third

South Africa’s dominant telephony operator Telekom reported a 33% jump in annual core earnings in the first results announcement since the company was listed. EBITDA rose 33.4 per cent to ZAR12.8 billion for the year ending 31 March 2003, mainly due to cuts in capital expenditure and impressive growth in its fixed line, mobile and data businesses. Consolidated revenues were up 10% to ZAR37.6 billion, though this excluded several one-off losses, including asset write-offs of ZAR189 million and the ZAR213 million cost of its IPO.