- Telkom plans to list its masts and tower business by March next year.
- The masts and tower business saw a 7% increase in revenue to R674 million for the past six months.
- But that - along with a solid performance from its mobile operations - was not enough to bolster Telkom's revenue.
Telkom expects to list its masts and towers business on the JSE by March next year, as part of its ongoing strategy to unlock value.
Telkom-owned Swiftnet operates 6 225 cellphone masts and towers and is South Africa’s largest independently-run tower portfolio.
Telkom announced its plan to list the business in September, and on Tuesday said that listing is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of its financial year, which ends in March.
"Significant progress has been made, including, but not limited to, formal engagements with the JSE," the company said, adding that a separate listing will "affirm the valuation of the masts and towers business and its contribution to the overall valuation of the Telkom business" and unlocking further value.
The company's results for the six months to end of September, which were released on Tuesday, showed that its masts and towers business saw a 7% increase in revenue to R674 million.
Telkom’s share price slumped by more than 10% following the release of its results, which showed a 30% increase in headline earnings per share to 285.5c, but flat revenue at R21.3 billion. The company also did not declare an interim dividend.
Its mobile data revenue increased by 6.1% to R6.3 billion, while the firm's mobile customer base shot up 18.8% to 16.3 million.
"Our strategy to build a data-led network continues to serve us well with 10.3% growth in mobile broadband customers representing a surge of over 65.5% of our active customer base," said Sipho Maseko.
However, its fixed line business revenue declined by 9.5%, although the slump was slower compared to the 18.2% reported in the prior period. Fixed-line customers continue migrate to new technologies such as fibre and LTE.
Another drag on Telkom's performance has been its IT business, which the company says "remains under pressure due to the challenging trading environment".
BCX, which is a technology company that provides ICT solutions was said to be the "hardest hit". Its revenue declined by 6.1% to almost R7.5 billion, due to sluggish investments by corporates, which have have not fully recovered from the pandemic.
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