Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the Interim Results for the six months ended September 2023. With me here is Dirk, and the rest of the team will join later on. Let's just go through the results. What's key for us has been the past six months delivering seamlessly on execution of our mission. Over this past six months, we've been seamlessly trying to connect and position Telkom as an Infraco, and I think we are seeing the early results of that journey. What's key for us is, it's been a solid operational performance, mobile and data traffic, mobile and fixed traffic, up in petabytes perspective. Homes passed and homes connected, leveraging up to what we've set in our visions. In terms of financial performance, both Openserve, fixed and data revenue up as highlighted.
I think most important is in terms of delivering to value unlock. We have signed up to a partner, an exclusive partner, where we are having quite intense conversations to then close off our fiber, sorry, our Openserve—our towers, our Swiftnet perspective. There's so many things in Telkom, I get confused, so, let me just get right. Swiftnet, we are now at the point of closing that conversation. Obviously, we can't announce further details in that regards. If we look at then the resultant impact of the first half, group revenue up, headline earnings per share up. Most importantly, the net EBITDA ratio back to 1.8%, which means that we are controlling our, our debt. Equally, EBITDA, positive growth in that regard, and I think Dirk will shine more color on that.
If we look at Telkom consumer, overall, 10.3% growth in mobile data. Equally, a positive growth in EBITDA growth, as well as overall data usage growth, I think in quite high petabytes. If I go into more details with that, the growth in mobile, really driven by the performance in mobile overall revenue. EBITDA, coming back to, the lines that we anticipated. I think what's important for us is if we look at the mobile data revenue growth, at 5.8%, quite positive against the market and competitors. If we look at what's driving that, as we've always said, Telkom has a really high data share. And I think if we look at what's driving our growth in mobile is really behind that usage in, high data, especially in, 4G and 5G sites integrated.
If we look at the shape of our profile, we don't have any 2G subscribers. Most of those are roaming. 89% of our users are on 4G and 5G, which is indicative of our data growth. If we look at Openserve, continued growth on NGN, which is our next generation revenue, I think that's quite important for us, and especially if you look at the EBITDA margin on Openserve, really highlighting the focus on making sure that we are using and monetizing our costs. Key to that is the connectivity rate of 46%. Once again, showing that the CapEx that we're investing is aligned to the connectivity that we want to achieve.
I think these slides just highlight the focus on our next generation growth, which is quite key for us there, and also the importance of our EBITDA growth, in line with the activities that Openserve has done, and making sure that our costs and our efficiencies are important. This is highlighted by, if you look at just the petabytes used and the homes connected, very important in our sector. I think what's key for us is just the services that we've delivered in the market. I think what's important, NPS score has increased. Importantly, the number of visits to customers has decreased, really affecting the efficiency. But I think what's quite critical is the numbers at the bottom, when you see that the availability of Openserve, despite load shedding, above 99%, and I think that's quite an important achievement, for us.
If you look at BCX, 10% growth in our IT business, as well as the growth in hardware and software. Yes, it does impact on us negatively if we look at our margin, but I think it's important for us that the growth in IT is the entry point for what we need for software and services, on growing. I think the key thing there is that the same thing of next generation revenue continues in that regard, in that we do see our NGN growth, positive in that regard. SwiftNet, positive EBITDA margin, despite the cancellations that we've been experiencing in the short term. Our productive portfolio, up to 4,008 sites. I think, as I've highlighted there, good growth in revenue.
The cancellations of Openserve and, Cell C, while in plan, but however, I think through to good cost efficiency programs, the EBITDA margin for Openserve, for Swiftnet, looking quite positive. We have announced today the disposal of the Swiftnet portfolio. Obviously, we cannot communicate any further details in this regard, given to our JSE requirements. However, this does allow us to then look at how we balance our balance sheet, equally, and, we will be announcing to the market further details in due course. I will now pass on to Dirk, who also, like me, bought a suit today.
Thanks, Serame, and good morning, everybody. Yeah, I think Serame has covered at a high level. I'll try and cover in a bit more detail. If you look at the financial performance, the revenue up by just over ZAR 500 million, 2.5% growth. As Serame has covered the areas, mostly in mobile and next generation revenue. I'll come back to revenue, still a small overhang in legacy. EBITDA growth, despite cost, despite load shedding and specifically bad debts, I'll cover that. Margin flat.
I think then if you look at profit after tax, earnings per share and headline earnings per share, as expected, a lot of depreciation savings on the back of the ZAR 13 billion impairment at the prior year-end, but that's offset by, interest rate charges, 1.7 growth year-on-year in debt, and a 2% interest rate increase. Net debt to EBITDA recovering at 1.8. I'll cover that in more detail, we're comfortable with that. And I think the big thing is free cash flow. You'll see two numbers right through the slides. There's a, call it a ZAR 500 million negative and a ZAR 600 million positive. The negative is if I include the restructuring cost, which we tend to leave out, to look at the underlying business performance.
And really, if you look at the trend of the previous four quarters, the improving trend continuing, and we're comfortable that that should continue further. If you look at the revenue, I think overall, as I say, the 2.5% growth we're comfortable with, but where does that sit? In mobile, 4.1%. Important mobile service revenue is in excess of 5%. In IT, 11% growth. I'll come back to that. That is in the more the product side than the services side. Next generation fixed data, 22%. Clearly, where we're investing on fiber, that growth is coming through. So the message here in total, if you look at the NGN overhang that we've been telling the market for the last couple of years, the total voice revenue is now less than 10% of our total revenue.
It's 8-something% coming down from 12%. So that overhang becoming proportionately smaller, and if you look at absolute numbers, you will see that we've now reached the inflection point where the rand value growth in NGN has overtaken the rand value decline in legacy. And that was, for us, a very big plus point. The legacy is still with us. You'll note that ZAR 1.8 billion is probably still gonna be with us for at least another 24 months. But if you look at the legacy data, the NGN data growth is now overtaking the legacy, the fixed data, the fixed legacy decline. So overall, from a revenue perspective, very, very important that we believe the impact of the legacy decline will just continue to become smaller and smaller.
If I look at EBITDA, EBITDA is stable with a flat margin. I think, on the back of data revenue growth. I've alluded to the IT revenue growth, still more growth in the product side than the services side, which talks to lower margins, and that is a strategic driver on how do you move from, products more into services. I've covered the voice overhang, but I think very important is the impairment in both the retail as well, as well as the wholesale side. We experiencing, I think, similar to what's out there in the market, not only the consumers under pressure, but we're also now seeing that some of the, your bigger corporates, and specifically on the public sector, your local governments, we experience more pressure on expected credit losses and therefore an increase.
I think we've mitigated that to a large extent by the initiatives that we intentionally put in place. The restructuring is complete. You'll recall that, we provided for the restructuring cost at the prior year end. The cash flow is in this year end. That's why the ZAR 1 billion, I'm talking of adding back all the time. The optimization of the roaming cost, despite the high volumes, the roaming cost charge almost flat, talks to network rollout in areas where we've got high roaming volumes through the roaming partners, talks to successful negotiations with the two roaming partners. And then other productivity areas, mostly in emergency power, where we've gone a long way to move from diesel as a primary to battery as a primary, multi-year IT contracts, et cetera.
So that's really how we mitigated the impact of mainly load shedding and bad debts on the EBITDA. If I just look at the mobile business on its own, the market normally ask for this because they try and compare this with their peers. A 3% cost growth, well below inflation. It talks to the mobile cost initiatives. You'll note the spike there that we spoke about at year-end, that was driven by the post-pay drive. That post-pay drive is now normalized, and therefore, both your direct cost as well as your cost to serve, has come back to normal levels to before we intentionally drove the post-paid initiative to get our post-paid customers from 12% to circa 17-18% as we speak. CapEx, very important. So Rami alluded to this.
You'll note that the CapEx have come down slightly from ZAR 3.6 billion to ZAR 3.2 billion. Important, 90% of this CapEx is spent on fiber and mobile. I showed you on the revenue slide, that's where we're experiencing the growth, so we're spending CapEx in the right areas. If you then look at the network expansion, specifically on the fiber side, you'll see significant growth in the homes passed, as well as the homes connected. It's a connect-led strategy. We're not playing in the land grab. We will roll out CapEx on the fiber as we get the connectivity up. Openserve's targeting 50%. We're continuously keeping it between 46% and 47% for the last three quarters. But the moment we get to 50%, we can accelerate CapEx. So, so that's intentional.
If you look at the Openserve CapEx ratio coming down from 25%-22%, important, in the 25% was still the tail end of the core infrastructure investment, the so-called Potin. That's completed. The Potin, the core, is in maintenance mode. We're now only accelerating the spend on fiber to the home, so that's the one reason for the reduction. And as I say, in fiber to the home, we will control the speed of expenditure and investment based on connectivity. Very important, because that's how we monetize it. I think if you look at the mobile footprint, growing more than 400 towers in that quarter and now 300 towers, we comfortable that we're spending adequately in the areas where there's growth, and secondly, where we've got excess roaming cost.
The spike in the prior year is really on the back of emergency power. In the previous period, we spent significantly on batteries, so you'll note that at the 14%, we're slightly higher than what we would have been at a normal. So, so overall, where are we coming down in Gyro? That's cyclical, given the Gyro transaction. We have cut, not cut back, we've slowed down on new tower build, small cells, that is now accelerating again. And secondly, we've reduced the spend on investment properties and development properties significantly. That's not core, that's not where we experience growth. So we had an intentional reduction of CapEx in the Gyro space. So I think the message is, we continue to adequately invest in the growth areas, and we're comfortable with the level of CapEx that we've spent for the first half.
The slide that nobody wants me to show, that I'm very proud of, I think, is free cash flow. That's something we don't guide on normally, but if I start from the bottom, you will note the -ZAR 478 free cash flow for the period. If you compare that, and I actually want to talk to the... Sorry, the pointer has just gone dead. There. I want to talk on the adjusted free cash flow, which is the free cash from normal operations.... If you look at the trend, -1.8, -800 to 500, that's if I exclude the restructuring cost. I think very positive trend. If you say, where did it arise? And I'll come back on the next slide, but mostly profitability and free cash, working capital release. You'll note that finance charges, a significant increase.
It's a ZAR 1.7 billion increase year-on-year of interest-bearing debt, and then a 2% increase in interest rates just in the year. So that's the biggest reason, that, and then you'll see the cash on CapEx fairly constant. So this, for us, is a good picture. We think we've done well in the cash flow, and this trend should continue. If you then just say, in the unwinding of working capital, the cash generated from operations, additional profitability, ZAR 400 million of that. Working capital unwind of, call it ZAR 900 million. That includes the handset sales in the first half, which we will continue to do as a financing mechanism of the post-pay debtors. The 339, the IFRS specialists will understand that, on this slide, it's really...
You know, when you calculate free cash flow, you add back interest rates. So although the interest has gone up, now you add it back, so it shows as a positive, fairly technical. But the biggest reason for this improvement is profitability as well as working capital unwind. Strong balance sheet with enough headroom to grow. I think, I've referred to the 1.7 increase in interest-bearing debt. You know, lease liabilities, again, IFRS 16, when you look at the gearing, you take the liability into account, but not the asset. So the gearing at 1.8 times has recovered slightly from year-end. We've guided that we want to be on 1.5-1.9.
If we look at the different business units, all of them are with the rating agents equal to A-rated business units. If you look at the business unit debt, which also gives us, as a group, a blended A-rated Moody's rating from a credit perspective. I think important to note the maturity of the debt. You'll note that we've moved more than ZAR 4 billion from short- and medium-term into 7-year and longer debt at very sound commercial rates, so a huge impact on cash flow and liquidity. We're busy negotiating a further significant number. And then, the big numbers there is relating to our bond market. We will go back to market in the fourth quarter next year to refinance the long-term bonds that's still in there.
But if you look at the maturity profile, you know, as I say, we've moved ZAR 4 billion into 7-year and longer debt, more aligned with our CapEx investment and more aligned with the spend pattern of our CapEx. So in conclusion, on this slide, at the end of the reporting period, ZAR 3.6 billion of cash flow, four point six billion of unutilized facilities, that gives us ZAR 8 billion of headroom in the balance sheet to invest in growth areas, in CapEx, in a responsible manner. So very comfortable with the gearing ratios as well as the balance sheet. I then want to conclude. So what's my message? Is, in terms of where did we end versus guidance, I think both revenue and EBITDA is what the market sort of was expected. It might be slightly better.
CapEx, as I say, that's cyclical. I did warn that we'll be at the lower end of that. We are not too worried about the capital levels at this stage, at 14%. We do believe that we're investing adequate in CapEx in the growth areas. Balance sheet structure within guidance, very comfortable, and the number that's not on here, because we don't guide it, it's free cash flow. So, I think that that's where we've done well. Thank you, Serame. I'll hand back to you.
Thank you, Dirk. It's most encouraging to sit next to a CFO who is more happier with the results than me. And thanks for the team for delivering that. So if we look at our outlook, I think despite the challenging economic environment, I think our guidance remains unchanged. We are focusing on cash generation as a business. We've talked about the execution of value unlock, and we'll announce to the market with that in short time. So the key thing for us is really about releasing cash, improving return on assets, and transforming the way we work as Telkom. And that will be resultant of the markers that we deliver. So I think as we've stated in SwiftNet, we have put the asset on disposal. You'll all be asking us very, very difficult questions this afternoon.
We can't answer them due to JSE listing regulations. On BCX and Openserve, obviously, as part of the InfraCo conversations, we are managing how we do that internally and take that forward. The key thing for us is, many of you have asked, why InfraCo? It's really about how we drive our capital efficiencies, how we sweat our assets, how we make sure that we promote and drive synergies, and equally, how do we exploit our right to win, which I think the early times or the early days of our performance so far have shown. Our key thing for us, it's a long journey. It's a journey to 2025. The first thing is delivering on how we dispose our assets, which we have gladly announced this morning, consolidating our assets, and then talking of the Telkom of tomorrow.
It's not a short-term journey, it's a long journey for us. We shall now open to question and answers. I think, Nondyebo, you will come up. Thank you.
Thank you, Serame, and good morning to everyone. I'm Nondyebo Mqulwana . I will be moderating the question and answer session from the investment community. We've got people who've joined us from the webcast, as well as Chorus Call. But I will firstly take questions from the floor here at the JSE. Our first question comes from Louise, from Investec.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. I appreciate you can't say much on the Swiftnet transaction, but maybe perhaps you can give us more color on how it was narrowed to one bidder. In June, I think you had three bidders, in September you had two bidders. Maybe you can speak to what caused the other bidders to fall away. And also, if you can comment on timelines, on when do you expect the transaction to close? That's the first question, and then the second question is on BCX. I think we've become quite spoiled. You've given us quarterly numbers now. So if you're looking at the revenue growth in the second quarter, it looks like it went negative. What is this a function of? Are you seeing competitive pressures?
And please, can you comment on the health of your corporate and, I guess, your public sector customers? Then the third question is on ROIC. I think we again, we were spoiled. The last results you provided, ROIC per technology. I think I missed this in this current booklet, but if you can comment on the trends, specifically on the next generation network, and you know, how the ROIC has changed in the last six months or so. Thank you.
Thanks, Louise. Do you have enough questions?
Yes.
The first two, Drake, will I take or will you take?
I think you can take Swiftnet. I'll take the others.
Swiftnet, we obviously cannot communicate in that regard in terms of JSE rulings, but I think it's indicative of the range that we've set to the market, so we were comfortable with that. We will be communicating in due course. Obviously, a SENS was issued this morning, and we'll update the market accordingly.
I think in terms of BCX revenue, BCX still affected by legacy. BCX have still got 18-24 months of legacy in the converged communication division, similar overhang to what Telkom has got, and the growth in IT hasn't overtaken that. They, they've still got that, that, that tapering down. In terms of their public sector exposure, we are... Let's call it we, we, we're selective, where we put new contracts. We have had one or two bad examples relating to, to supports and some municipalities, et cetera. Normally in the public sector, if your paperwork's in order, they do pay. Sometimes a bit slow, but they do pay. I think Jonas and his team very selective on, let's call it public sector work, but it's still one of your biggest spenders in IT. You can't ignore that.
I think in terms of ROIC, Louise, you're bullying me, but I've always committed that once a year, we'll give ROIC numbers with the split balance sheets. We'll do it annually because it entails valuations, fair valuations, et cetera. It's a lot of work. I'm not gonna give you forward-looking numbers because I can't give you forward-looking numbers, but we're comfortable that the ROIC is and should improve the way we envisage. And again, once the legacy is out of the wash, the ROIC will improve exponentially. So you've still got that legacy overhang, and therefore, if you look at third technology, I think, you know, the mobile and fiber growth speaks for itself. So we're comfortable that going forward, the ROIC, it's not gonna get to back in the end of the year...
It's not a one-day game, it will take time. But, going forward, we're looking at where we invest, how we invest, what's the rate of return on non-CapEx investments, and the ROIC will consistently improve.
Presh, you're next.
Thanks. It's Preshen from Nedbank. I've also got three questions, seeing that Louise set the precedent. First one, can you comment on what your network uptime is for Telkom Mobile, particularly in the last quarter when we saw, you know, elevated levels of stage six throughout most of the quarter, so network uptime there? Then secondly, the question, the second and third question is kind of linked, and it's linked to the free cash flow. Was the spectrum payment included in this half? And if so, how much? And then positive to that is, were the property sales... I know there was a property auction that you guys had. I'm not sure if it was one or two, or the second one was outside of the quarter. Just, can you give us some color on how much that actually raised for Telkom? Thanks.
Perfect. So if we take the Netcom, the availability was between. So in stage six, we were 88%-89%. In most stages, we are up to 90%. That's the first question. I think the second question was the property sales, I think.
I'll take the spectrum. I think the free cash flow-
No, spectrum is included.
Yeah, so the free cash flow doesn't include spectrum. The spectrum is payable in the next half.
Mm-hmm.
And again, we... It's in our forecast numbers, and we have got ways to fund that, so we're comfortable that that's adequately planned for. And then the property sales, Presh, the cash flow only comes in as the transfer happens.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
So what you see on what was sold in the auction, all that cash is not in. It actually drips in, you know, as it gets transferred in the deeds office. But it's money that's secure, and it will come. But it's not in the. It's not all in the current free cash flow. I think just on the uptime, on the network, the fixed network, 99.8% up, despite any stage of load shedding.
Mm-hmm.
-which has got a significant impact on cost, diesel, et cetera. And then the mobile, as Rami says, 80% plus.
Okay. There's another question from the floor.
Hi, it's Myron from MIBA. Two questions. One is the profile of impairment of receivables and contract assets. I mean, that sort of ticked up, ticked up in the second half as well.
Mm-hmm.
What sort of... Can you give us some color on that, and what sort of profile are you expecting looking forward? I mean, just some color on that once. And then the second question is on slide eight. If you can go to slide eight.
Clicker. Clicker.
Is it? Okay. It's just a clarification on your mobile data revenue. You're carrying about 700 petabytes. Just remind me, does that include... I should know this, but does that include your fixed wireless access, or is that just purely the traditional mobile data traffic? One back. One more. Yeah, that one. The middle one. Sorry.
Mobile data?
The traffic itself. The traffic itself. You disclose your mobile data traffic.
It would be both.
It would be both, right?
It includes LTE as well, yeah.
So it's the fixed wireless access as well as the people-
Yeah
-walking around.
Yeah. Yeah.
I think in terms of the profile of impairments on the retail side, on the consumer side, we see the cover ratio being consistent, so the growth slightly up compared to the growth in the book. I think in the corporate space, we have seen 1 or 2 chunky ones, and I'm talking big ones, that's come through as ECLs, and they... It's very difficult to forecast sort of a profile, Myron. It's they-- We manage them intensively on a one-by-one basis. But in the consumer space, all... I think what we, what we're seeing more is normally your customers default in the first 2 months. We are now seeing more experience of customers defaulting in month 13, 14, and onwards. So the consumer are really under pressure.
All right. Thanks. I'm gonna read a few questions from the people joining us on the webcast. There's two questions around CapEx and whether... So the first question comes from Elenishi: "The CapEx percentage is much lower than guidance. How does Telkom keep securing continuous growth from this? And linked to that, it talks to, we've cut our CapEx for fiber for the period. Are we concerned that we'll lose market share in the fiber space, seeing as competitors are investing far more?" Doug, do you wanna take that also?
So I'll take that.
Okay.
So on the CapEx space, I mean, if you look at the mobile CapEx, I think what's important to recognize is that, two years ago, with the Covid spectrum, we invested quite significantly in CapEx, right? Which then meant that we could get the sub-1 gig CapEx. We then got allocated that spectrum after the auction, so which is quite important. The second part is that if you look at the CapEx we spend on power in the past fiscal and mobile was important in yielding that. So that's quite critical. If we look at fiber, the key thing with fiber is that we tell our team that they need to earn the CapEx they spend. The connectivity rate at over 47% is driven by the fact that we build where we can connect, and that's quite important for us.
So that's the third thing. The fourth part is obviously with the negotiations that Logan and team have done on roaming, our CapEx spend is what we call smart CapEx. We spend CapEx where we see higher roaming traffic. So even if you see the increase in mobile data traffic of almost 25% petabytes, the cost of roaming has actually decreased as a result of that efficient CapEx spend. So that's where we are landing to answer that question. I don't know if you want to add more.
I think, just to add on the fixed fiber CapEx, and I think the market must just take note, that we've been investing in fiber CapEx probably for the last 30 years. I mean, we built our first satellite tower probably 50 years ago, and the rest of the market that you're seeing publicly is relating to fiber to the home. Last mile fiber, by and large, most of it. We are only accelerating last mile fiber build now. Remember, we have had significant investment in our core network, our Potin network, which is the backbone, the infrastructure, the core on which the traffic flows, and therefore, that investment is now in maintenance mode, and the others are playing catch-up. So it's very difficult to compare on a one-to-one basis with our peers.
You must compare our fiber investment, and Elton can help me out, but we must compare our fiber investment with fiber to the home only, and then say, are we really tracking behind? And then, as Serame says, in that one, I think our strategy is slightly different, where we are not playing the land grab. We are investing where we can monetize, and therefore, it's a connect leg strategy rather than just go and build where you can.
Thanks, Dirk. Just one additional question around spectrum payments. What is the value of these payments, and when are they due? That's from Kramer, from Oystercatcher.
Yeah. So I think we've disclosed the value. It's just over ZAR 900 million-
Uh, yes.
spectrum payment, and that is payable before the end of the calendar year.
Thank you. I'm gonna check on Chorus Call, Judith, if there are any questions.
Thank you. There are no questions from the lines at this stage. Thank you.
All right, thanks. I'm checking around the floor to see if there's any, any question from anyone in the room again.
There's a question there.
Get the mic.
Hi, Serame. You're asking ICASA to postpone the next spectrum auction until 2025. If they don't agree with your request, what does that mean for Telkom?
Nothing significant, Squire, because if we look at the spectrum that we've got, the sub-one gig, I think what was left of the spectrum auction was the one they called the untidy sub-one gig, which had a lot of very untenable execution requirements regard to it. So I think where we are is to try and align the mobile operators to actually benefit from the spectrum that they got right now. So I think in principle, unless there is changes fundamentally, Telkom would not be intentionally participating in the next auction.
Thanks, Serame. Just some financial questions for you, Dirk. Please provide color on the deferred revenue that increased by ZAR 800 million. That's from Neil Fenter, from Absa. It seems it might be a once-off cash flow boost. The second question is around working capital, if you could provide some color, for the first half and whether this is sustainable.
Let's start with the working capital.
Mm-hmm.
If you take the slide, I've presented the ZAR 800 million increase. The bulk of that comes from handset sales. We have done ZAR 800 million of handset sales in the first half, and that will continue. As the post-paid book grows, we will continue to fund that. So the handset sales, I don't want to commit to treasury here, but we are well advanced to do another significant chunk of that. So in terms of working capital unwind, it's a combination of debtors, and I'm talking trade debtors, in specifically two or three areas, being BCX and Angaro. It is funding of the handsets through handset sales, and we've got specific plans on inventory reduction in Openserve and BCX. That is small in quantum compared to the rest. So the working capital unwind, it will be stable or better.
The first portion of the question is your deferred revenue. Main, main portion of that still relates to mobile, post-paid, where you defer the revenue of the 24- and 36-month contract. And then there's a big one-off in terms of the Google undersea cable Equiano. It's a significant number, Neil, that's in there. And the question of that cash flow, what is the upside? I'm talking from my head now. The upside of that cash flow in half one is circa ZAR 240 million only, and that cash flow will balance in half two. So, for the full year, that cash will sort of break even on that transaction. You'll see that there's a significant disclosure on that transaction. I think it's note 4 of the financials.
And if you add up all those cash flows, that's about ZAR 250 million that's disclosed in this quarter and for this half, and for the full year, that will cancel out.
All right. So the final question from my side is another financial question. It's from Maddie from HSBC. Is the depreciation and amortization run rate for the first half a good base for future periods? And then, around value unlock, the second question is, can you please update on progress on monetization of the other assets and any potential timelines? I suspect this relates to BCX and Openserve.
Well, with the depreciation, I think it's a good base. Obviously, there's capital investment, which the number is disclosed. The depreciation saving is on the back of the ZAR 13 billion impairment on the prior- that we have disclosed. So I think the depreciation is a good base, and then you offset against that the interest rate change. The expectations were interest rate reductions earlier on. Given the midterm budget, given the global and local economic circumstances, we believe the high interest rates could remain for a while still, so you need to look at those two together. Serame, do you want to take the value unlock and the others?
I think on the monetization, as you've said, the cash flow from the property sales, I think, reported. We've talked about ZAR 170 million of properties sold. And we are talking of disposing more of our properties in that regard. So that will come through, in time.
OpenServe.
OpenServe?
BCX and Openserve.
Look, I think on BCX and Openserve, as part of the InfraCo strategy, we are looking at how we internally integrate BCX and Openserve as part of the InfraCo structure. We will then update the market on any future conversations around the two entities.
Thank you. That's all the questions we have today. Do you have any final closing remarks, Serame, for the investment community?
I think what's important for us. Well, firstly, thank you all for attending this call. I think the focus on driving towards an InfraCo is showing short-term results, early days. We remain confident in the growth in mobile, and more importantly, remain encouraged by the growth in data, both from fixed and mobile, in terms of the petabytes that are used. So I guess, as an entity that we've said that we are going to be a data-driven InfraCo company, those results are beginning to show. So thank you for attending.