James Anyanzwa
7 September 2004
Nairobi — Celtel International, the leading pan-African mobile communications group with over 4 million customers in 13 countries, reported strong growth in the six months to June 30, 2004.
The group's improved results follows the acquisition of KenCell in Kenya.
"We have continued to achieve strong organic growth with a 63 per cent increase in the number of users in the existing businesses. During the half-year, we made a strategic investment of US$118 million in infrastructure to grow our networks and aggressively promoted our new brand," said Marten Pieters, Celtel International's Chief Executive Officer.
He added: "The KenCell acquisition in May was a critical strategic development which gave us a quantum leap in user numbers to 4 million. This key license consolidates our position in the East Africa region and we have already identified network expansion and development opportunities for these markets.
"Celtel is now the leading operator in East Africa and in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole."
The Group performed strongly with revenues in the six months to 30 June 2004 up 47 per cent to US$296.5 million, up from US$202.0 million on a proportionate basis. This performance was largely due to 63 per cent organic growth in the total number of managed customers in existing operations in the six months to June 2004.
Revenues also include one month's contribution from KenCell, Kenya's major mobile network operator, acquired at the end of May. KenCell significantly increased the number of mobile customers for the Group, pushing total managed customers over the four million mark at the half year, 111 per cent up compared with the previous year (H1 2003: 1.9 million). On a proportionate basis mobile customers were 2.7 million for the Group at the end of the first half, a 108 per cent improvement on H1 2003.
Monthly ARPU (average revenue per user) was lower, at US$22.5 over the six months compared with US$25.0 in H2 2003. The consolidation of KenCell had a negative impact on the average.
The Group showed a healthy net profit after tax of $56.8 million, compared to $12.6 million in 2003. This includes an exceptional profit item of US$26.6 million on the sale of some non-core telecommunications investments.
Operating cash flow was US$75.8 million for the half year, up 196 per cent compared with H1 2003. Given that over 70 per cent of revenues are linked to hard currencies.
The customer base remains predominantly pre-paid with 95 per cent of customers using 'top-up' cards.
Capital expenditure in the first half was significantly higher than last year at US$117.5 million (H1 2003: US$32.3 million), as network development and expansion accelerated to meet customer demand.
During the six months the Group continued to receive strong support from investors and raised a total of US$79.9 million in new equity. Additional capital was raised from the sale of investments including the minority stake in China Resources Peoples Telephone in Hong Kong and part of a minority stake in Vodafone Egypt. The Group realised US$55.2 million in total from these asset sales in the first half.
The Group continues to access local funding and recently completed a US$6.6 million debt refinancing in Gabon.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2004 The East African Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
