|
|
Africa: Vodacom Figures Boost Case for Moving Into Rest of Africa
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Business Day (Johannesburg)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Lesley Stones
Johannesburg
FRESH figures issued by Vodacom yesterday may help the network operator persuade shareholders to let it expand further into Africa, as growth finally slows on its home turf.
Vodacom has repeatedly railed against an agreement between its joint parents Vodafone and Telkom that prevents it playing north of the equator - its latest figures could help to loosen those shackles.
The figures show what it is capable of achieving despite the constraint, but also confirm that its future will be increasingly tough unless it is given freedom to expand. For the three months to June 30 Vodacom lifted its revenue 14,5% and pushed its subscribers up 6,6% from the same period a year ago. It now serves 34,6-million users across its networks in SA, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique.
However, subscriber growth is up by only 1,7% since March, adding fuel to its argument that to grow more rapidly it must expand into other markets where it could face less competition and larger untapped populations. Growth in SA was especially muted, and blamed on "an increasingly competitive market". It now claims 24,89-million users in SA, which is 0,3% higher on 24,82-million three months earlier. The slower growth saw its market share dip from 55% to 54%.
|
Incoming CEO Pieter Uys has made it a priority to win the freedom to expand abroad.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Business Day. 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
