Telkom’s share price was trading at a near-two-year high on Tuesday after a quarterly trading update suggested the business is outperforming its rivals in mobile services.
The shares touched an intraday high of R37.47 on Tuesday morning on the news. The last time it scaled those levels was in February 2023, and over the past 12 months they have added more than 35% to their value, beating bigger rivals MTN Group and Vodacom Group over the same period.
The improved business performance comes as group CEO Serame Taukobong’s data-led strategy appears to be paying dividends for the partially state-owned telecommunications operator, whose assets include fibre provider Openserve and IT services company BCX.
On Monday, in a trading statement, Telkom said that in the three months ended 31 December 2024, its mobile business had expanded mobile service revenue by nearly 10% year on year.
Mobile subscribers grew by an impressive 21.6% to a record 24 million, including a 17.3% increase in mobile data subscribers – now representing 62.3% of the total mobile base. That growth far outpaced growth at its bigger rivals.
Telkom’s consumer business saw its prepaid segment grow by 25% to 21 million subscribers, while the post-paid base remained stable with improved average revenue per user. Ebitda – earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – jumped by 51.4% to R1.5-billion, with a 6.5% improvement in the Ebitda margin.
‘Growing momentum’
Describing the results as “strong”, Telkom said its focus on data-led services had helped it gain market share in mobile and elsewhere.
“These results provide further proof that the execution of Telkom’s strategy is on track, delivering profitable growth,” said group CEO Serame Taukobong in a statement with the trading update.
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“We are excited by the growing momentum across our business units, and we remain confident in our ability to meet our medium-term growth objectives as we continue to invest in our infrastructure, network and digital services.” — © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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