Telkom results in a nutshell

Telkom saw a marginal increase in revenue for the 2022/23 financial year but reported an 87% decrease in profit.

In its annual results for the year ended 31 March 2023, Telkom reported a 0.9% increase in revenue, “despite challenging trading conditions” as the company’s mobile and broadband strategies continued bearing fruit.

However, the company saw an 86.9% decrease in profit compared to the previous year, which it attributed to “the incremental costs of load-shedding”.

The company said these costs reduced Telkom’s overall profitability “notwithstanding efforts to manage operating costs”.

The company reported a profit of R346 million for the year. However, this number was adjusted with impairments totalling around R10.317 billion (adjusted with tax). Therefore, excluding adjustments, the company suffered a loss of R9.971 billion.

Telkom saw a marginal revenue decrease across three of its four segments, with only Swiftnet seeing a 0.9% increase in revenue. Openserve’s revenue declined the most, with a 4.0% decrease.

The company’s Telkom consumer segment remained its largest in terms of revenue, despite a 0.3% decrease to R25.673 billion.

Telkom’s mobile service revenue increased slightly by 1.8%. However, its mobile EBITDA margin decreased by 6.7%. Its blended average revenue per user also decreased, declining from R90 to R86.

The operator saw a significant growth in active mobile subscribers, which increased by 7.8% to 18,262,331. The largest subscriber growth was found in Telkom’s mobile broadband subscribers, who increased by 23.9%.

While 2023 marked the final year of Telkom’s three-year dividend suspension period, the company’s board decided that the resumption of a dividend should be postponed for at least another year.

This decision was made in light of the company’s cash position and the current economic environment.

The company’s free cash flow decreased by 30.9% in the period to -R2,722 million.

“While we are committed to returning cash to shareholders in the medium term, we consider it prudent to first strengthen our cash position as we navigate the Telkom cost transformation journey along with market and economic conditions,” the company said.

Telkom results summary