South African operator Vodacom has confirmed in its annual results that group revenue increased by 4.5 per cent last year, though the company lost 308,000 pre-paid customers in the first quarter of this year.
The revenue growth was primarily attributed to data, with data revenue increasing by 22.2 per cent and active data customers increasing by 22.5 per cent to 18.5 million.
Headline earnings per share also increased, as a result of strong operating profit growth and secondary tax on companies (‘STC’) falling away.
It was not all good news, however, as Vodacom saw the number of active pre-paid SIMs fall to 24.404 million on March 31 from 24.712 on December 31. This follows MTN reporting a net loss of 470,000 in the same period.
“Over the past five years, Vodacom has spent R38 billion on network investment, R28 billion of which was in South Africa,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group chief executive officer (CEO).
“In just the last year alone we spent R9.5 billion across the Group and R7.0 billion in South Africa. It’s thanks to this intense investment activity that we’ve got the footprint, capacity and technology to capitalise on the smart device revolution.
“Crucially, it has also enabled us to operate more efficiently and expand our margins despite comprehensive price reductions. We also demonstrated good cost discipline and built on scale benefits across the Group, with the overall result of increased margins.”
