Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telco has announced a full year net income of Ksh 38.1 billion, a 19.6 increase from last years with a free cash flow of Ksh 30.4bn, up 10.3 percent from last year and it aims to pay 80 percent of it to shareholders pending board aproval.
The firm today announced it will pay a dividend of Kshs 0.76 per share totalling to Kshs 30.48bn, which represents 80% of its net income, for the year ended 31 March 2016.
Safaricom’s largest shareholders include Vodafone PLC and the Treasury, G.O.K and they own 40 and 35 percent respectively. Vodafone PLC will therefore plough back Ksh 12.6b while the Treasury will earn Ksh 10.64b.
To break the numbers down, Safaricom saw a 7% growth in its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to Kshs 83.1bn and an 8 percent increase in its total customer base to 25.2m leading to increased revenues in all its verticals.
According to Bob Collymore, Safaricom Limited CEO,“Our continued focus on the three strategic pillars; putting customers‟ first, providing relevant products and enhancing operational excellence, has resulted in an 8% growth of our loyal customer base generating strong financial and commercial performance.”
Safaricom saw its service revenues soar to Ksh 177.8bn, a 13.8 percent growth compared to the previuos year. It’s voice revenues grew by 3.9 percent to Kshs 90.8bn. Signaling the continuing growth of the Kenyan telco market attracting global telcos to bid for struggling local telcos.
Even with the increasing dependency on OTT services such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber among others, Safaricom’s messaging (SMS) revenue grew by 10.6 percent to Kshs 17.3bn due to affordable SMS bundles and relevant promotions.
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M-PESA, it’s cash cow saw an 8 percent increase in 30 day active customers to 16.6m, a 17.5 percent growth of its M-PESA agent footprint to 100,744. Lipa Na M-PESA payments made at 44,000 merchant outlets in March grew by 74 percent to Kshs 20bn. It’s M-PESA revenue increased by 27.2 percent to Kshs 41.5bn.
The 77 percent growth in mobile data revenue to Kshs 21.2bn attributed to affordable smartphones in the country. There are over 7m Safaricom customers using smartphones, a reason why it’s investing in 4G LTE in various parts of the country though some customers complain the 4G never works. In March 2016 it had 7.9m customers on 3G and 4G enabled devices, of which 0.7m are 4G handsets.
The firm saw a 5 percent increase in its 30 day active mobile data customers to 14.1m while its fixed service revenue growth stood at Ksh 3.8bn, representing a 22 percent growth on account of increased number of fixed customer users to 10,490 up 21.6 percent. It has 1,018 commercial buildings connected to high speed fibre as well as 1,795 homes. Safaricom now claims 64.7 percent market share on the Kenyan telco market.
