CHAMWE KAIRA
For the year ended 30 June 2024, Paratus Namibia invested N$204.7 million in infrastructure compared to N$450.6 million in 2023, the company said in financial results.
The number of new sites and fibre in new areas were limited to focus on the sign-up of new customers on the existing infrastructure.
During this financial year, N$111m was invested towards capacity expansion, customer access of the current network and the expansion of the LTE network.
During the 2023 and 2024 financial years, N$42.2 million was invested by the company, in conjunction with Paratus Botswana, for the construction of the fibre line running through Botswana to link the Equiano subsea cable from the Cable Landing Station in Swakopmund to Johannesburg.
The construction was completed during May.
The group declared dividends to the ordinary shareholders amounting to a total of N$ 9,7 million.
In terms of the economy, Paratus said the economy continued to grow, but at a slower pace during the first quarter of 2024.
The local economy registered growth of 4,7% during the first quarter of 2024, slower compared to the 5,3% growth recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2023.
“This is largely due to weaker growth in diamond and uranium production. Overall factors currently weigh in favour of better growth for Namibia in the foreseeable future. Namibia’s overall inflation softened both on a quarterly and yearly basis to 4.6% and interest rates have been cut by 25 basis points,” the company said.
Despite a challenging consumer environment, the group achieved a robust overall revenue growth of 21% spending driven by high interest rates, high inflation and a weak local currency.
The strong revenue growth for the period is mainly due to the expansion of its fibre, SKY-Fi and LTE networks across Namibia, capacity sales on the Equiano subsea cable and the increased occupation of the data center.
Paratus realised recurring revenue of N$508.1 million (2023: N$428.2 million), which represents a growth of 18.7%.
Non-recurring revenue, which mainly represents local area network installations in the commercial office space and the sale of telecommunication equipment, amounts to N$50.0 million (2023: N$35.4 million).
This represents a growth of 41.2%, notwithstanding management’s focus to grow recurring revenue as opposed to lower margin non-recurring revenue.
The net profit before taxation amounted to N$ 39.2 million (2023: N$33.3 million) and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation amount to N$223.9 million (2023: N$163.6 million).
During May, Paratus successfully concluded a rights issue and raised N$602.2 million.
These funds raised were temporarily invested in a money market fund.
