Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub
Photo by: Duane Daws
Strong revenue growth in its South African operation boosted telecommunications group Vodacom’s group revenue for the quarter ended June 30, by 3.9% year-on-year to R20.7-billion.
In South Africa, revenue grew by 7.8% year-on-year to R16.65-billion, underpinned by a 17% increase in equipment revenue, reflecting the successful delivery of the group’s strategy to grow the uptake of data-enabled devices.
Vodacom noted that smartphone sales had grown by 29% in the quarter. Active smart devices on the network had increased by 18.4% to 16.6-million, with the average monthly data use on these devices having increased to 734 MB.
The group noted that it continued to introduce new initiatives to reduce the out-of-bundle data spend by customers and to give customers more control. This contributed to a 56.1% increase in data bundle sales and an 18.9% reduction in the price per megabyte.
Data revenue grew by 18.1% to R5.5-billion, contributing 42.2% of service revenue.
The group’s customer base in South Africa also expanded by 2.3-million in the quarter to reach 39.4-million.
INTERNATIONAL
Vodacom’s international operations, however, did not fare as well, with revenue down 8.2% year-on-year to R4.24-billion in the quarter ended June 30.
“Although the International operations have turned the corner, currency volatility is still negatively impacting on the translation of these results,” said CEO Shameel Joosub.
The group pointed out that a better performance was achieved in Tanzania, while growth was sustained in Mozambique and Lesotho. However, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, economic weakness and the decoupling of the Congolese franc from the dollar continued to negatively impact on consumer spending.
Vodacom expects the acquisition of a 35% stake in Kenya’s Safaricom, for R35-billion, to further boost the international operations’ contribution to overall group revenue.