Safaricom announces 10 percent raise in dividend (Kenya)
Safaricom Ltd. has raised its dividend by 10 percent after full year profit beat analyst estimates, causing the share price to climb 3 percent to $0.5. Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore, said that net income fell 4 percent to $151 million, in the 12 months through March.
Collymore told BN in an interview that profit declined as a result of unrealized foreign-exchange losses amounting to $13.05 million and an increase in interest payments by $7.12 million. Sales rose 13 percent to $1.27 billion, as the number of customers increased 11 percent to 19 million.
As per the report, the company increased call charges on Oct. 1 for the first time in 11 years amid a weakening currency and rising inflation in East Africa’s biggest economy. Rates increased an average of $0.01 per minute after the company reported a 47 percent plunge in first-half profit amid a price war with competitors.
Collymore added that business improved in the second half as increased tariffs boosted voice revenue and the shilling recovered against the dollar after hitting a record low.
Talking about the future profit growth, Collymore said that both data penetration and usage in Kenya are still low and the company will boost that by providing more affordable smartphones to its customers.
The company plans capital expenditure of $250 million in the financial year ending March 2013, with most of that being spent on its fiber-optic network, Collymore revealed in the interview. Investment last year was $300 million.
Safaricom aims to reduce capex to 20 percent of sales from about 24 percent now, Collymore said, without giving a timeframe.
France Telecom plans 500,000 subscriber additions in Kenya (Europe, Africa)
As per reports, Mickael Ghossein, CEO, France Telecom has said that the Kenyan unit plans to add 500,000 users to its network by the end of 2012 and wants the regulator to double rates operators can charge to carry each others’ voice calls.
He added that Telkom Kenya is targeting 3.3 million customers, or 11.2 per cent market share, from 2.8 million users now. Further, the company wants Kenya’s telecommunications regulator to raise termination rates to $0.05 a minute to help it recover costs.
Ghossein also said that it is good to protect the consumer; but it is also good to protect the investors.
According to a report by the Communications Commission of Kenya, the number of people using mobile phones in Kenya rose to 26.5 million in September, up from 25.2 million in June. The report revealed that Safaricom accounted for 68 per cent share of the market, followed by Airtel Networks Kenya Ltd. with 16 percent.
Safaricom gains stock value with increase in subscriber base (Kenya)
Safari
com, a leading mobile network operator in Kenya, has added maximum number of subscribers in the second quarter of 2011, causing its share price to rise. According to reports, the stock rose 1.7 percent from US$ 0.033 on 30 December 2011 to US$ 0.034 on 6 January 2012.
As per sources, the Communications Commission of Kenya revealed that Safaricom is currently the most dominant operator in Kenya with a market share of 67.7 percent. Further, the Commission has reportedly stated that Safaricom added the highest number of new customers at 593,177 followed by Airtel Networks Kenya Ltd., with 557,567 new subscriptions in the quarter ending September. Also, Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd., added 46,742 new customers while Telkom Kenya Ltd., added 16,683 new users.
Safaricom to launch fibre-optic network (Kenya)
Kenya’s dominant mobile network operator, Safaricom, has reportedly announced that it plans to roll out its own independent fibre-optic network, in an attempt to strengthen its position in the mobile data market, and reduce its dependence on the declining voice market.
According to reports, Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom has said that this move is a part of their strategic decision to be the regional leader in broadband provision. He added this new direction will offer them greater control of the quality of service offered to their customers. As per sources, the operator is on the lookout for a company to build and maintain the inland network expected to cost US$10.22 million.
As per sources, Safaricom activated a fibre-optic link between Nairobi and Mombasa in February last year, using infrastructure leased from the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) for $ 2.9 million.
Safaricom launches cloud computing services (Kenya)
Mobile network operator Safaricom has launched an indigenous public cloud solution in the region. According to reports, Safaricom invested US$ 24 million for setting up the infrastructure and is expected to invest an additional US$ 18 million over the next two years.
Cloud Computing is online-based computing in which shared resources (such as network printers), software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand. Companies essentially pay for one license for each user and receive a host of applications as opposed to paying for them individually and installing them on their machines.
According to reports, Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom has said that this launch means a great deal for them and shows that the partnerships they have built pack great strategic potential and value for their customers. With this move, they have solidly positioned themselvea as the go-to provider for cost-efficient and secure corporate data solutions of scale and impact in this market.
He added that they believe that the full potential of enterprise data services will not be tapped unless they deploy ‘world class’ solutions to match corporate and public sector requirements. Their partnership with SST, Cisco and EMC² on the SafaricomCLOUD is sharply focused on achieving this end through an unmatched cloud computing offering.
Safaricom hikes call rates for the first time in 11 Years (Kenya)
Safaricom Ltd., Kenya’s largest mobile-phone operator, has increased all voice tariffs by one shilling citing increasing inflation and the weakening currency. As per reports, Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom, said that this is the first time in Safaricom’s 11-year history that they have had to effect a price increase on retail voice tariffs. He said that they have set out to run a sustainable business and they have to charge a price which makes sense for their customers as well as shareholders.
Sources claim that rates will rise by an average of 1 shilling per minute, further, calls between Safaricom users will climb to 4 shillings (USD 0.04) and calls by subscribers to rival networks will rise to 5 shillings (USD 0.048). The new tariffs have the maximum impact on users making international calls. Safaricom has raised the call charges by three times for calls made to US, Canada and India which combined constitute for as much as 60 percent of all international calls made by Kenyans. The inflation rate in Kenya climbed to 17.3 percent in September, while the shilling fell 19 percent against the dollar, making it the world’s most underperforming currency.
As per reports, the number of mobile-phone users in Kenya grew at the fastest pace in at least a year, rising 12 percent to 25 million, in the three months through December as the cost of calls fell.
African mMoney revenue to grow to $3 bn in 2015
A new study has revealed that in Africa, mMoney operator revenue as a percentage of total operator revenue will continue to rise to more than 5% in 2015, representing a nearly US$3 billion opportunity.
While Safaricom’s M-Pesa in Kenya has long been the lone success story in the mMoney universe, researcher can now see success being replicated in Uganda and Tanzania with similar mobile money offerings.
MTN Uganda’s MobileMoney service accounts for 3% of all airtime sold on its network, and Vodacom’s M-Pesa service in Tanzania currently has 6 million subscribers with exponential growth of 600% experienced in the past year alone.
From the beginning of March, mMoney offerings remain limited and are concentrated in just 22 of the more than 50 African countries.
Researchers believe that the African mobile money market has the potential to grow to a money-making market, but operators, banks and regulators need to work toward developing an enabling environment for business models that meet service providers’ revenue demands and offers needed by mMoney services to end users.
Safaricom says set to launch MNP (Kenya)
Safaricom Kenya has stated that it is ready to launch the MNP services (Mobile number portability) ahead of the April 1 deadline.
According to CEO Bob Collymore, Safaricom has aligned all the critical systems and is ready to implement the protocol from the April 1 date as set by the Communications Commission of Kenya. Safaricom hopes that other operators are equally prepared. He stated that inter-operator tests carried out so far by Safaricom and one of the operators as instructed by the CCK had shown a system that works.
He hoped that tests with other operators will be comparable and welcomed mobile subscribers to take advantage of the new protocol to migrate and enjoy Safaricom’s proposition. Porting subscribers are expected to pay a fee of US$2.34 to Porting Access, the company appointed to administer the porting process.
Telkom Kenya selects ZTE for 3G launch
Telkom Kenya, controlled by France Telecom’s Orange has stated that it has selected China’s ZTE Corp to launch its 3G network countrywide.
According to Telekom’s Chief Executive Mickael Ghossein, the company will invest US$46.56 million in the network to improve its market standing, and the service is expected to be up and running at the end of the first half of 2011. They expect the roll out to be complete by latest May, and the launch should be in June this year.
The company has 1,500 sites on 3G across East Africa’s biggest economy and stated its customers would enjoy speeds that could enable them download a song from the Internet in less than a minute.
Telkom aims to double its subscribers to about 4.6 million by year-end, in line with its overall goal to become the country’s No. 2 player by 2015 after market leader Safaricom.
The company acquired the 3G licence, the country’s third, for $10 million in November last year, after the country’s telecoms regulator reduced the price from $25 million.
