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Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub
Vodacom Group has obtained a solid financial performance for the year ended March 31, 2020, which allowed it to increase its total dividend for the entire year by 6.3% to R8.45 / share before taxes despite the economic situation getting darker caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It added 5.9 million customers, to reach 116 million across the group, including the Kenya Safaricom. South Africa’s revenue from services increased 2.3%, with “the elasticity of data usage supporting recovery to growth in the second half” of the financial year.
Group revenue increased 4.8% (3.5% normalized) supported by growth in group service revenue of 5% (3.5%). Core earnings per share increased 8.9%, though that was driven by the one-time costs of R1.5 billion associated with its black economic empowerment transaction in fiscal 2019.
“In South Africa, sharp declines in data prices, specifically the out-of-packet data rates announced in the first quarter, led to a steady increase in data traffic as the year progressed, to 1.9 million of data customers most connected to the Vodacom network – a 9.7% increase to 21.9 million, “CEO Shameel Joosub said in a statement.
“While it’s still early, the trend for increased data usage has continued in the current financial year after reductions in 30-day data package rates of up to 40% from April 1 and launch of our ConnectU platform, which provides easy access to numerous zero-rated essential service websites, “he said.
“One more service”
“As part of our strategy to generate diverse and sustainable revenue streams, our efforts to introduce ‘one more service’ to customers continue to gain momentum. For example, revenue from our financial services business in South Africa increased by 21.5% to R2 billion, thanks to our popular Airtime Advance, insurance and VodaPay services. ”
Vodacom’s digital services business also produced “solid growth”, contributing R1.5 billion in revenue thanks to increased purchases of video-on-demand services and its music, sports, games and other video services.
The group recorded a continuous margin expansion in its international portfolio. This was helped by increased demand for M-Pesa data and mobile money services, which contributed to a 12.5% improvement in service revenues. – © 2020 NewsCentral Media
