Safaricom has posted a healthy performance in its H1FY17 results, with a 111.6 per cent year-on-year increase in free cash flow
The firm posted growth of 15.4 per cent year-on-year in its H1 service revenue to reach KES98bn, with revenue from mobile data sources climbing 4.9 percentage points.
EBITDA rose by 30.8 per cent year-on-year to hit KES50.8bn.
Net income grew by 32.4 per cent year-on-year to hit KES23.9 bn.
MPESA revenue grew by 33.7 year-on-year to reach KES25.78bn, with mobile data revenue surging by 46.3% year-on-year to total KES13.4bn.
A total of 14.9mn 30-day active mobile data customers used SafariCom in H1FY2017 and the firm forecasts 17.5mn users to subscribe for the full year. This has almost trebled from FY13, when only 5.6mn people were using the service.
In addition, customers are consuming more online data. Usage per customer at 231MBs per month has increased by 44 per cent year-on-year.
Voice and and messaging revenue accounted for 43% and 8.8% of service turnover, respectively.
Overall, the results were better than expected and are ahead of management guidance.
Service revenue, once annualised and taking into account seasonality, is broadly in line with the firm's full year estimate of KES206 bn.
According to a press release, stronger than expected earnings were due to efficiencies in cost management.
