Media releases | The World of Cell C

Thursday, 20 February 2025

Johannesburg, 20 February 2025 – Cell C announces an update for the financial and operational performance for its half year period June to November 2024 (H1'25).

Financial highlights

Total revenue of R 6.7 billion, up 13%
Service Revenue, up 7%
Gross Margin of R2 billion, up 23%
EBITDA of R783 million, up 87%

Key performance highlights

Executing on the company’s strategic priorities has yielded double-digit results year on year.
Robust financial performance leading to sustainable growth and profitability.
CAPEX light model is yielding positive results with strong traffic growth in data, offsetting the marginal decline in voice traffic as consumers adopt VoLTE.
Stellar performance in the MVNO Business as the telco continues to be the first choice and the home of MVNOs.
Brand performance is gaining impressive momentum, driven by the brand refresh, enhanced network experience, and consumer-friendly products. These efforts have been acknowledged by consumers, reflecting our alignment with customer needs.
For the first time, Cell C was awarded Best Overall Video Experience in South Africa.^

Robust financial performance leading to sustainable growth and profitability.
*Total revenue of R6,7 billion has shown substantial growth of 13% compared to the prior year (H1:24: R5,9 billion), with IFRS adjustment revenue has remained stable with service revenue up 7% on prior year (+8% with IFRS adjustments), reflecting the results of the telco’s CAPEX light model, commitment to enhancing its digital presence and improving customer experience. While Cell C’s customer base remained steady at 7.7 million, the 14% increase in Blended Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) to R102 highlights a positive shift, demonstrating stronger customer engagement and the success of an effective pricing strategy.

Impressive performance momentum in the MVNO business, up 22% on prior year, also contributed to the solid results, further reinforcing Cell C’s market leading position in the MVNO landscape, which is poised to further scale. The broadband offering showed good growth with a 26% increase versus the prior reporting period.

This growth is further supported by significant improvement in EBITDA performance of R783m, up 87% from prior year (H1’24: R419m), demonstrating operational efficiency, more efficient cost structures, as well as optimised commercials in capacity buying. The result is a markedly improved Gross Margin of R2.0 billion, a 23% increase on prior year (H1’24: R1.6 billion).

Prudent liquidity management remains a critical imperative and the result for H1’25 is a marked increase of 111% in cash. Total shareholder debt (secured and unsecured) makes up 50% of the total liability balance. Improved profitability resulted in reduced negative equity and there is steady progress in building a healthy balance sheet.

Operational Highlights

Network Performance: Cell C achieved a 97.9% average network availability across partner networks and pioneered the deployment of MOCN technology. Our first VoLTE call on Africa’s cloud-native via AWS has enhanced voice communication. Awarded best overall Video Experience in South Africa in the Opensignal Awards: South Africa: Mobile Network Experience Report August 2024
Customer Experience: eleven stores were completed for this reporting period to align to the brand refresh and improve customer experience, this includes the expansion of digital channels. Brand performance is showing significant momentum and Cell C remains ranked as one of the top thirty most valuable brands in South Africa.
MVNO: Forging strong partnerships has delivered significant growth in MVNO reinforcing the telco’s strong market position.
B2B: The building of momentum in the enterprise business

Looking forward
Cell C will continue to execute on its strategic priorities to fuel growth while ensuring operational intensity across all lines of business, accelerate growth in MVNO and pursue opportunities to scale B2B business.

The investment in digital platforms and capability will continue to allow Cell C to offer differentiated customer experiences across various touchpoints, whilst building on the momentum of the brand refresh to drive brand consideration further.

Building the best culture in the country is still a priority, in addition to fostering a high-performance culture through multiple engagement forums and change management programmes.

Cell C CEO, Jorge Mendes concluded, “I am pleased at the strong commercial momentum we have built, and our significant growth and strong financial performance have laid a solid foundation for future success. We will further leverage our CAPEX light model to pursue new opportunities, focus on sustainable growth, and maintain our competitive positioning, supported by our intentional commercial rigour in all lines of business. Our progress is a testament to the dedication and resilience of our teams and their efforts to meet customer needs and the strength of the Cell C brand.”

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* Unaudited non-IFRS financial results for the 6 months ended 30 November 2024
* The total revenue of R6.7 billion reported is based on Management Accounting principles of reflecting postpaid handset gross revenue separate from the related expense and reflecting recoveries on costs against the related operating expense.
IFRS adjustments affect revenue, direct expenses, and operating expenses for principal/agent accounting for handsets and recoveries. With the IFRS principles applied the total revenue is stable at R6 billion year on year when you compare the same period, with EBITDA (R752 million) growth of 79%. The IFRS principle reflects postpaid handset revenue net of related costs and reclassifies cost recoveries against the partner cost in direct costs.
^ Opensignal Awards – South Africa: Mobile Network Experience Report August 2024

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