Kenyan telecoms group Safaricom reported a 40% jump in first-half earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) this Thursday, helped by smaller losses at its Ethiopia unit and a strong performance in its home market.
Safaricom, majority owned by South Africa’s Vodacom Group, said group EBIT rose to 91.1 billion Shillings ($701.58 million) in the six months to the end of September, up from 65.2 billion Shillings ( $5.02 billion) a year earlier.
“You can see the reduction in start-up losses in Ethiopia starting to really make impact at a group level, and also the solid performance in Kenya,” Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa told a briefing.
The company maintained its full-year EBIT guidance of 180 billion Shillings ($1 billion) – 187 billion Shillings ($1 439 billion).
Group service revenue rose 13% to 226.1 billion Shillings in the first half of the financial year.
In Ethiopia, Safaricom’s EBIT loss narrowed to 11.4 billion Shillings from 24.3 billion Shillings a year earlier.
Safaricom launched in Ethiopia in 2022 when the government there started to open up the tightly-controlled economy to foreign competition.
It hopes its presence in Africa’s second-most populous country will power future growth and that it will break even by the end of this financial year
–Reuters–
