Neotel's earnings up 531% as cash flows

Neotel's EBITDA (Earnings before Interest‚ Tax‚ Depreciation and Amortisation) increased 531% this year.

Commenting on the results‚ Sunil Joshi‚ chief executive of Neotel said: "Amid global uncertainty and a tough competitive environment‚ Neotel has outperformed the local industry.

"We are extremely thankful to our customers for their support of competition in South Africa and for affording Neotel the opportunity to add value to their business. Neotel's performance is a testimony to the innovative and cost effective solutions we offer our customers in South Africa and the dedicated focus the entire Neotel team demonstrates."

In line with its strategy‚ Neotel says it continues to capture market share. While the fixed-line telecommunications market in South Africa is projected to grow at 1.4% a year until 2018‚ Neotel‚ across all business units‚ is growing at more than eight times this rate.

Neotel's core‚ enterprise customer base is up 29% year-on-year driven by underlying revenue growth of 44% in managed services and 24% in network services.

Internet connectivity

The company's Internet connectivity services from its two flagship products - NeoInternet and NeoBroadband - have seen more than 75% revenue growth‚ while voice services grew 24%.

In line with its role as a disruptive innovator‚ Neotel remains focused on optimising costs for its customers . During the year‚ Neotel launched broadband on demand over fibre (Broadband Booster)‚ along with South Africa's second public TelePresence room‚ located at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. This room connects seamlessly to the public room in Neotel's Midrand campus‚ as well as 45 other public rooms around the world‚ enabling a new way of collaboration through simple high definition video technologies.

Neotel also forged a strategic partnership with NIIT to provide end-to-end education and ICT solutions to learners in South Africa and the SADC region.

Similarly‚ Neotel reported a 52% increase in retail customers‚ driven by product innovations such as the NeoSmart device. The NeoSmart phone‚ South Africa's first portable landline‚ combines accessibility and connectivity with affordable fixed-line rates.

Neotel remains on track to launch its full-service Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and offer a range of data solutions in targeted areas in South Africa.

Joshi said: "In the period under review we invested more than R500m and now have access to over 15 000km of national long distance fibre and about 8‚000km of fibre in major metros. We offer the latest converged IP voice‚ Internet and data solutions to our business customers that can grow."

He says the domestic fibre network is connected to all five undersea cables that land on South African shores‚ linking the major hubs within the country to each other as well as to global markets‚ both emerging and developed.

"Even the recent submarine cable outages had no negative impact our services. We can proudly say that Neotel's Internet service has never gone down as a result of a cable fault," Joshi added.