Telkom South Africa has announced its financial results for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2014, reporting 1.1% year-on-year growth in revenues, which rose to ZAR32.5 billion (USD3.04 billion) from ZAR32.1 billion reported in the corresponding period of 2013. The improvement came on the back of a 1.7% annual increase in data revenues to ZAR10.981 billion, and a 3.6% increase in revenues generated by internet access and related services (ZAR1.676 billion).
Meanwhile, EBITDA increased by 3.8% to ZAR8.4 billion, while net debt reached ZAR2.1 billion, an 0.8% improvement in twelve months. Further, Telkom recorded profit after tax of ZAR3.943 billion, significantly higher than the ZAR11.636 billion loss reported at end-March 2013. The positive development was partly driven by a ZAR169 million net curtailment gain, and a ZAR246 million tax benefit generated following workforce reduction expenses – including voluntary severance and early retirement packages.
In operational terms, the group reported a total of 1.803 million mobile subscribers in end-March 2014, up 17.6% from 1.534 million in Q1 2013. Its ADSL base grew by 6.5% to 926,944 in the twelve months under review, while fixed access lines dropped to 3.618 million, down by 4.8% from 3.8 million reported in 1Q13.