By Loni Prinsloo, Bloomberg.
Vodacom Group, Africa’s largest wireless carrier, declared a full-year dividend that beat analysts’ estimates as headline earnings increased slightly.
The payout for the year ended March 31 is R6.20 a share, up from R5.90 a year earlier, Vodacom said in an earnings statement on Monday. The dividend compares with an average estimate of R6.13 a share by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
“We significantly expanded geographic and product diversification resulting in the number of customers increasing,” Chief Executive Officer Shameel Joosub said in the statement. “We now seek to ensure we deliver against our vision 2030 ambitions, which include growing our customer base to 260 million and financial services customer base to 120 million.”
The group also upgraded its medium-term targets for service revenue to double-digit growth as part of its 2030 plan. The firm, together with the substantial mobile-money business it operates via Safaricom, wants about a third of its revenues to come from financial services in the future.
The M-Pesa mobile-money platform processed more than $450 billion in transaction value for the year. The results underscore the growing demand for payments, savings, lending and merchant solutions, Joosub said.
Vodacom said it plans to invest R20 billion in capital expenditure during the next year, and awaits the outcome of its appeal process for its fiber deal with Remgro.