Telkom released a trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2024, revealing that reduced load-shedding costs significantly boosted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization .
This was coupled with EBITDA margin growth of 3.6 percentage points year-on-year for Telkom Consumer, and 6.0 percentage points year-on-year for Telkom Mobile.Telkom’s wholesale fibre division, Openserve, also saw strong EBITDA growth thanks to a R128-million decrease in diesel expenditure. It said these initiatives, together with technology upgrades and infrastructure at critical locations, coupled with the improved stability of the national grid, meant Telkom only spent R23 million on diesel during the quarter.Telkom said the cost efficiency initiatives resulted in EBITDA growth of 16.8% to R1.02 billion and EBITDA margin growth of 5.5 percentage points year-on-year.
The state-owned power utility has been steadily increasing its energy availability factor through its generation recovery plan, and this combined with reduced demand from solar rooftop generation has made the load-shedding break possible.if South Africa’s mining industry increases production.