JOHANNESBURG - Telephone company Telkom said on Monday its diluted headline earnings per share rose to 608.1 cents in the year to March 31, from 577 cents in 2018.
Telkom said group profit after tax increased by 11.5 percent to R3.344 billion. It declared a final ordinary dividend of 249 cents, taking the annual dividend to 362 cents, an increase of two percent year on year.
"The group ended the year with a solid performance despite the pressures from the regulatory landscape, a weak economic environment, a decline in fixed voice revenue and customers migrating to next-generation technologies at lower margins," the company said.
"Looking forward, we expect to accelerate the migration of customers to next-generation technologies in line with our strategy focusing on retaining customers. It is imperative to continue investing in key growth areas in line with our strategy to ensure that we win against our peers."
Telkom said its capital expenditure investment to date was already yielding positive results, with the growth in new generation revenue streams driving growth for the group.
It expected the trend to continue and said it would manage the decline in traditional revenue by proactively migrating customers from traditional to new generation revenue and partnering with over-the-top players to provide data-led propositions to customers.
"To support the migration strategy, we intend to accelerate our investment in our network for coverage and capacity and continue to utilise our LTE coverage (4G) spectrum efficiently, as the bulk of the traffic is on our 4G network," Telkom added.