Good afternoon, everyone who has joined. Welcome to Telkom's SA Limited interim results presentation. All attendees will be in listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity to ask questions when prompted. If you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by keying in star and then zero. Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now hand over to Kamo to introduce the speakers. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Judith. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Kamohelo Selepe . I'm part of the investor relations team at Telkom. Welcome to our Q&A session for the interim results for the period ended 30 September 2025. With me on the call is our Group CEO, Mr. Serame Taukobong, and our Group CFO, Mrs. Nonkululeko Dlamini. Before we start with the Q&A, I'll quickly provide the key highlights of our performance for the period. Starting with the group highlights, our data-led strategy continues to drive growth. Our group data revenue increased by 7.9% to now 45.1% of total group revenue. This was driven by fibre data-related revenue growth of 12.3% and mobile data revenue increase of 10.3%. We reported group EBITDA margin of 27.2%, but if you exclude the non-core property disposals, it stood at 26.4%. Have improved by 16.4%.
Have improved by 16.4% to ZAR 1.36, highlighting our quality of our earnings. Free cash flow was stable at ZAR 724 million. Cash generated from operations before capital spend increased by 7.9%. Going into the PUs, our mobile business continues to deliver market-led service revenue growth, which increased by 7.9%. The growth in our mobile business was driven by our prepaid segment. Our CVM monthly has contributed 48.2% to prepaid service revenue. This is where we drive value-compelling pricing and propositions in our mobile business. Mobile EBITDA margin expanded to 27.6%, with cost and implement of results remaining stable. Going to Openserve, Openserve grew revenue for the second successive quarter, and overall revenue for the business increased by 2.7% in the first half. Revenue grew across all segments in Openserve. Enterprise revenue was up 15.7%. Broadband revenue improved by 7.3%, and carrier services revenue increased by 5.1%.
Openserve continued with its industry-leading connectivity rate, which stood at 52%. The EBITDA margin of the business was resilient at 33.3%, driven by revenue growth and cost efficiencies. Jumping into BCX, the targeted actions implemented have resulted in improved profitability. As a result, EBITDA margin for the business improved to 9.9%. This was due to a 4.5% decline in operational expenditure. The IT business in BCX increased by 1.2%, with IT services portfolio revenue being resilient. Fibre-related data revenue within conveyance communications grew by 13.8%, offsetting the decline in international connectivity and voice services. We can now hand over back to the operator to start with the Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please key in star and then one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that [Dlamini] is in the question queue. You may key in star and then two to leave the question queue. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, you're welcome to key in star and then one. Our first question comes from Maddie Singh of HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. Thanks a lot for taking my question. I just wanted to hear your views on the current competitive environment in South Africa, especially on the prepaid side. Do you see this almost price war-like situation can continue for a while, or do you see some improvement in the environment? That is the first question. The second question is on your asset monetization plan going forward. Is the likes of Openserve or any other opco still up for potential monetization? If so, what are the most likely scenarios you can think of them getting monetized? Yeah, thank you.
Thanks, Maddie, for your questions. If we look at the competitive environment in South Africa, absolutely, it will continue. What is important, Maddie, is that we stick to our knitting. What is key for us is that our data-led strategy is clearly yielding results. Competition is buckling in response to our strength, and we will continue to leverage our strength. Our CVM propositions are driving the right price points for our customers. Competition is struggling to meet those price points, and we have seen it in 12 consecutive quarters of leading revenue growth. That is the key thing for us, that Telkom Mobile, as we said, is now the benchmark of growth in the sector. It is for competition to follow us. In regards to asset monetization, as we have said, Openserve is key to our infrastructure strategy.
There is no plan in terms of any further asset monetization in that regard. I hope I've covered you there, Maddie.
Yes, thanks. Any other assets which can be monetized besides Openserve? Thank you.
Not at this point, Maddie.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Perfect.
All right, thank you. Just a further reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, you're welcome to key in star and then one. Next question comes from Preshendran Odayar of 36ONE. Please come here.
Hi. Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. Congratulations on the results, and congratulations, Kamo, for stepping up there. I do not know if this is a very, very early succession plan for Serame, but he is still quite young and got a few years left. I will start with two quick questions. First is on Openserve's revenue and EBITDA. Can you perhaps give us the split of what is coming from the legacy copper business and what is coming from fiber? The second one is more for Nonku. Your plans for the debt that is maturing in 2027. Just want to know what your plans are for that, and if I can bolt that on to potentially a higher dividend payout that could happen at the end of this 2026 financial year, if you weigh those two options up. Thanks.
Thanks, thanks, Presh. I'm certainly encouraged by the step-up of Yan Kamo. It looks like our talent pipeline is growing quite well. If we look at the Openserve revenue, were you talking to legacy and fiber?
Yeah, I think we looked at fibre.
I think what we reported there is the fiber is legacy is now contributing close to this. It's almost insignificant. I think it's under 10% odd is the fiber revenue at that level. We don't disclose at the EBITDA level yet, Presh. I'll have to be kicked under the table to give those details. The next question was to Nonku. You're not wrong.
Yes, thank you, Presh. Lastly, the upcoming maturities are related to the bond issuances that we have. In fact, we have been engaging in the same roadshows with the bond market. In the context of continued leveraging the balance sheet, we are considering refinancing the bonds that are maturing. Depending on the feedback from the market, when we finally do a deal roadshows, we will then assess whether it is a clear refinancing, obviously looking at the cost and the tenor that we get, as well as the market interest in the sounding that we will do. I think for where we are, we are driving a strategy of refinancing the maturing bonds. Most of them will be probably in H1 of 2027.
Hope you're covered, Presh.
Yeah, thanks very much, Nonku. Thanks very much, Serame.
The next question, Jono Bradley of Absa. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks very much again for the call. I thought I'd just ask two quick questions on your sort of prepaid segment. The first is, Serame, you mentioned in the presentation this morning that WhatsApp bundles have been quite a big part or a key differentiator for Telkom. I'm wondering if you could just give us an idea of how big the sort of WhatsApp bundles are in your prepaid sort of recharges. I mean, any sort of steers, a rough percentage or proportion. The second question is just around airtime advance, how big that is or was in the last quarter, and is that sort of increasing or remaining the same or decreasing? Thanks very much.
Thank you, Jono. In terms of WhatsApp, we generally do not give in terms of the shape of what that is as a percentage. The steer I would give, Jono, is when you look at what is in that bundle and where competitors are struggling to match. The unique proposition is, one, Telkom Mobile was, in fact, the first operator in South Africa to freely open up WhatsApp as a proposition because when we were launching at that time, it was our unique differentiator in response to markets given our challenger proposition. The second and less key at this point in time is the fact that our WhatsApp bank book actually allows for voice calling, which is quite a key differentiator to Telkom and MTN.
Why I say this is that if you look at the significant 2G voice base that those two have, this is the unique punch point that Telkom Mobile has. To the point of competition and competitiveness, that's why when you see MTN, for example, launching an all-net voice package at 2G level, it has no impact on us because we do not have that 2G voice challenge. The uniqueness of the WhatsApp bank book is the fact that the Telkom WhatsApp bank book actually allows voice calling. That is the uniqueness of that. Airtime advance, it is sitting at about 30%-32%. We keep it there because for us, anything above that threshold, you start now running into a danger of rotational churn. We intentionally keep it at those levels. I hope I have covered you there, Jono.
Yes, thank you. Maybe just one follow-up on Telkom Mobile. Just on handset sales, it looks sort of increased a bit in the second quarter. I mean, how should we be thinking about that going into the, obviously, the summer campaigns and the Black Friday sort of specials? I mean, would you look to ramp that up? When we're thinking on a sort of quarter-on-quarter basis, I mean, is there sort of scope to further push that? That will potentially, obviously, drag on your working capital, so keeping working capital as an outflow. Maybe just give us a steer in terms of how to think about the handset sales and the impact on working capital in the second half.
The handset sales in the second quarter, firstly, what's important there is the handset sales that are attached to that. It is predominantly in prepaid devices. We do not want you guys to think that we are going back to the scary days three years ago when you saw the infamous impact in postpaid devices. This is not a postpaid move. This is prepaid devices. Once again, an intentional strategy to tactically go after seeding those into entry-level prepaid devices as part of our acquisition of the top end of the 2G voice base who are migrating to prepaid. That is one. It will continue, but it will wash out, I think, over a 12-month period. It is linked to the revenue growth. It is an opportunity for the guys to seed those prepaid devices, entry-level prepaid devices into your pips, etc., to aid with that.
Summer, as you rightly said, for Black Friday, which is the 13-day campaign, and also into December will be part of that campaign going in. It will wash out over the next 12 months, but it is linked to that prepaid revenue first. I hope I've covered you there, Jono.
Yes, thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, just a further reminder, if I've asked a question, you're welcome to key in star and then one. Do place yourself in the question queue. We have a question from Jonathan Kennedy- Good of Prescient Securities. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Just a quick question on capital return. Just wondering how the board thinks about potential share buybacks vis-à-vis dividends, particularly given obviously the stock price has come off a little bit and performance and cash flow seems to be quite strong. Just would like some color there if you can.
Thank you, Jonathan. I'll give that to Nonku. What should I take it?
Thank you. Take it.
I think if we look at share buyback, I mean, this is a question that was raised last time when we were paying dividends. It's a double-edged sword. One, if you give them the pool, the impact would be marginal because the size of the dividend payout was so small. That's the first part. The second part is also in terms of the protection of the minority shareholders because if you do do a share buyback, it means that the majority shareholder, that's the 40.5% shareholder, it becomes bigger in size. That is also in light of protecting the minority shareholders. The size of the dividend payout does not really make that significant impact because the effect of share buyback, they're really not considered our level.
It is also saying that it has the opposite effect of not protecting the minority shareholders, and the 40.5% will be bigger. That is the big challenge which the board increases in that regard. That is why it was debated and it was not considered in that regard. I hope I have covered you there, Jonathan. Jonathan, sorry.
Yes, thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of our question and answer session. I will now hand back the closing remarks.
Thank you, Judith. Thank you, everyone, for joining the call. We'll see you in our roadshows in the two coming days, those who are seeing. That concludes the call for today. Thank you.
Thanks, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's event. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your line.