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JOHANNESBURG - Telkom, South Africa's third-biggest telecom company, on Tuesday posted a full-year profit of 1.9 billion rand ($103.95 million) and said it would consider resuming dividends from 2025.
The company restated its year-earlier result, a loss after tax of 9.9 billion rand, reflecting restructuring costs.
Its latest earnings saw write-offs of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets fall to about 80 million rand from 13.5 billion rand.
The operator said it will be in a position to pay dividends in the near term, with its financial year 2025 targeted as the first year-end to consider paying a dividend.
As part of a revised dividend policy, the board proposes a dividend payout range of 30% to 40% of free cash flow after taking into account capital expenditure investments, it said.
Its short to medium-term priorities are to strengthen its balance sheet by paying down debt and to invest in capital expenditure to drive future growth, it said.
Telkom reported a 1.6% rise in group revenue to 43.2 billion rand, with mobile service revenue up by 6.8% to 19 billion rand driven by demand for mobile data and fibre services.
($1 = 18.2785 rand)
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Jacqueline Wong and Jason Neely)