Vodacom faring better than Telkom
Battling telecoms' shares dip on weaker numbers
South Africa's big telecommunications operators are feeling the pinch of the tough economy, but financial results published in the past 10 days show Vodacom is weathering the storm better than its rival Telkom, whose share price has come under considerable selling pressure. Vodacom's headline earnings per share barely scraped into the positive column, climbing just 1.1% in the six months to September, while Telkom reported a 7.4% decline in the same period. Telkom's performance was dragged down by its fixed-line business, which has lost clients to rivals, and by BCX, the IT services business it acquired in 2015 for R2.7-billion. The share prices of both companies fell after they announced their interim results, although Telkom was by far the worst performer, falling more than 15% in the three days after it released its figures; Vodacom slipped by less than 3% in the two days after it published its results. Both shares have been under considerable pressure in recent months. Vodacom c...
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