Corporate & Commercial Law
'Please call me' case finally over as Vodacom and Makate settle out of court
Staff reporter 6 Nov 2025
Vodacom's interim profit jumps 32% on solid service revenue
Vodacom Group, South Africa's biggest telecoms operator, reported a nearly 33% jump in interim profit on Monday, 10 November, driven by double-digit service revenue growth and expansion of its financial services.
A shopper walks past a Vodacom shop in Johannesburg on 4 February 2015. Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The company, majority owned by Britain's Vodafone, said its headline earnings per share (Heps), a key profit measure in the country, jumped to 467c in the six-month period ended 30 September, up from 353c last year.
The figure includes a settlement from a 17-year legal dispute over a call-back service, which Vodacom had not previously disclosed.
SBG Securities on Friday, 7 November, estimated the settlement at roughly R500m ($28.88m), based on the mid-point of Vodacom's revised Heps estimate range of 459c and 494c.
Group service revenue climbed 12.2% to R65.8bn, while normalised service revenue grew 13.6%, surpassing the company's medium-term target of double-digit growth.
Beyond mobile services, including financial and digital offerings, made up 21.8% of service revenue, with financial services alone up 20.3% at R8bn, representing 12.2% of total group revenue.
The group declared an interim dividend of 330c apiece.
About the author
Reporting by Siyanda Mthethwa, Additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Sherry Jacob-Phillips