South Africa’s Telkom H1 profit up 10 pct, mobile unit robust

• by Reuters
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A shopper walks past a Telkom shop at a mall in Johannesburg February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Telkom posted a 10.3 percent rise in its first-half profit on Tuesday, as a strong showing at its wireless phone business offset declines in the traditional fixed-line unit.

Adjusted headline earnings per share, the main profit measure in South Africa, came in at 328.6 cents for the six months through end-September, compared with 297.8 cents a year earlier.

Telkom, which runs South Africa’s biggest fixed-line telecom network, is in the middle of transforming itself into a modern communications provider with heavy investments in a its mobile phone unit and rolling out fibre internet packages.

The company, 40 percent owned by the government, said service revenue from it mobile business grew 54 percent to 3.6 billion rand ($250.19 million) as it user base grew by almost the same margin to 6.5 million.

Telkom’s fibre network unit, Openserve, grew revenue by 0.9 percent to 8.6 billion rand.

($1 = 14.3890 rand)

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