Sipho Maseko-led Telkom SA posts $745.47-million Q1 revenue as mobile subscribers grow

South African wireline and wireless telecom provider Telkom SA has posted R10.62 billion ($745.47 million) in group revenue for Q1 of its 2022 financial year.

Compared with the previous year’s figure, the group’s revenue grew by 3.5 percent from R10.25 billion ($718.51 million) in Q1 last year to R10.62 billion ($745.47 million).

The single-digit growth in revenue came on the back of a 36.3-percent growth in active mobile subscribers.

Telkom is one of South Africa’s leading telecom companies, with an operational presence in more than 38 countries on the African continent. The telecom service provider is majority-privatized and 39-percent state-owned.

It recently overtook Cell-C to become South Africa’s third-largest mobile operator, with a subscriber base of 16.1 million active mobile customers, according to figures contained in its quarterly trading update.

Telkom’s mobile business and its masts and tower portfolio sustained their growth trajectory into the first quarter, although fixed business declined by 5.6 percent in the period.

While group earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization grew faster than revenue, with an increase of 7.3 percent to R2.751 billion ($193.13 million), the group’s EBITDA margin expanded by 0.9 percentage points to 25.9 percent.

The expansion of the group’s margin came off the back of an effective sustainable cost management, as the growth in its operating expenses was contained below the level of inflation, despite a six-percent increase in the average salary across the group.

Telkom SA Group CEO Sipho Maseko noted that the newly published results reveal the group’s sustainable cost management strategies, which continue to deliver positive results and have culminated in the EBITDA growing faster than the revenue, despite a salary increase across the group.

Telkom’s shares as of press time, 1:00 PM (UTC), were trading at R42.31 ($2.98), 110 basis points higher than its opening price today, Aug. 4, as buying pressure mounts on the group’s shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.