eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe on Monday overtook Delta as the biggest company on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange by market capitalisation, Business Weekly can report.
The mobile network giant is now worth $231,2 billion compared to Delta’s market capitalisation of $204 billion as at December 7, 2022.
Econet’s value now accounts for 17,19 percent of the ZSE overall valuation of $1,345 trillion. Delta accounts for 15,22 percent.
The ZSE’s top 10 counters account for 79,12 percent of the total market capitalisation.
Econet, which had dropped from a peak of $90 two or so weeks ago and bottomed at approximately $55 has since rallied to yesterday’s price of $89,26.
The recent rally comes on the back of the company’s latest financial where it reported growth in business across the board.
For the half-year to August 2021, Econet’s revenue increased by 95 percent to $29,6 billion, in inflation-adjusted terms, anchored by the increased contribution of data services.
Data revenue grew by 136 percent while voice services revenue increased by 92 percent.
According to Econet chairman Dr James Myers, aggressive cost management resulted in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin improving to 55 percent from 47 percent in the comparative period.
In inflation-adjusted terms, the telecoms giant recorded a $6,6 billion profit after tax up from a loss of $127,6 million recorded in the half-year to August 2020, while revenues, in historical terms, surged from $6,7 billion to $27 billion.
Meanwhile, spurred by this strong performance, Econet is now set to become the first telecommunication company to roll out 5G network in Zimbabwe within the coming few months in response to rising demand for mobile broadband services.
“During the period under review, we upgraded our 4G network in Harare and Chitungwiza and this increased the data browsing speeds by 1.5 times. This reflects our commitment to improve customer experience. 18 new base station sites were commissioned across the country to provide network connectivity in new suburbs that were previously un-serviced.
“We plan to commission over 215 new LTE sites country-wide to improve network quality and availability. In the next few months, we will start our 5G journey as we pivot to the next stage of our digital evolution,” said Dr Myers.
5G is essentially fifth-generation mobile network technology that offers faster data speeds and lower latency or response time as it allows several devices to be connected at one go and in future could help in running unmanned cars and seamless communication and interconnectivity between smart devices, a process commonly called the internet of things.
