Telkom has suspended plans to sell part of its fibre business, CEO Serame Taukobong said on Monday, as the fixed broadband service helped drive the company’s half-year income.

Shares in Telkom, 40.5% owned by government, were up 5.48% at 3.27pm after it reported that half-year adjusted headline earnings per share grew by 57.5%.

This was after excluding R160-million in restructuring costs and a R618-million cost of switching the Telkom Retirement Fund from a defined benefit to a defined contribution funding arrangement.

Telkom, which owns a big chunk of the fast-growing home and business fibre market, last year wanted to list the business separately or sell a minority stake in it to unlock more value but now wants to keep it.

“We have suspended any discussions or investigations into partnerships for Openserve,” Taukobong said. “We stayed very firm on our decisions as an infrastructure company, and I think you’re seeing the results there.”

He added that Openserve will remain a core and critical part of the group’s strategy.

Telkom has been investing in migrating customers away from copper-based technology to faster, “next-generation network” (NGN) offerings such as fibre and 4G/LTE as customers seek faster internet services for richer content.

Read: Telkom shares top R30 on strong data demand

NGN revenue now contributes 80.9% to operating revenue, up from 74.4% in the previous period, offsetting the impact of the group’s decision to ditch legacy services. — Sfundo Parakozov, (c) 2024 Reuters

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