South Africa operator Telkom reported headline earnings per share for its fiscal first half to September down 36 percent from a year earlier to ZAR 1.92 billion, hurt by start-up losses for its launch of mobile services. Operating revenues fell 3.2 percent to ZAR 16.4 billion, and EBITDA fell 17 percent to ZAR 4.4 billion. While ADSL subscribers increased 13.7 percent year-on-year to 795,419, the number of fixed lines fell 3.8 percent to 4.23 million. Fixed traffic was also down 6.9 percent to 10.52 billion minutes. The mobile business 8ta grew strongly, adding 1 million customers in the six months since March for a total 2.20 million at the end of September. Of the total, only 1.14 million were considered active, and these generated average revenue of ZAR 63.32. The mobile network increased to 1,400 base stations from 970 six months earlier. 8ta contributed revenue of ZAR 301 million and an EBITDA loss of ZAR 1.08 billion for the six months. Telkom expects the mobile loss for the full year to be around ZAR 2.5 billion. Telkom's net profit was down 70.8 percent from a year ago to ZAR 0.82 per share, due to an impairment of ZAR 445 million on its unit iWayAfrica. iWay's active customer base fell 13 percent to 23,300, and it reported a loss of ZAR 33 million on revenues down 21 percent to ZAR 175 million. Telkom's net result also included an operating loss of ZAR 269 million for Multi-Links in Nigeria. The loss on the sale of Multi-Links will be booked in the second half. Telkom's capex was ZAR 1.8 billion in the first half, and it expects a full-year figure at 15-20 percent of revenue. The company said it remains in talks with KT on possible cooperation, but did not say if it expects to reach an agreement soon.
