Sudatel Group announces a major improvement in the financial results
Its total mobile customer base increased by 4% to stand at 13.3 million
Sudatel Telecom Group (STG) generated revenue of $282 million for the year 2021 with an EBITDA of $106 million, representing an EBITDA margin of 38%. Net income for the period reached $20.036 million compared with the loss of $10 million in 2020. This transformation reflects the major efforts excreted by the new management team and employees lead by the Group’s CEO and President Magdi Taha.
The total mobile customer base increased by 4% YOY to stand at 13.3 million across group with an additional fixed line customer base of about 100,000 which also increased by 4%. The customers’ usage of the 3G/4G highspeed data services increased at 40% over the year resulting in the data revenue now representing about 30% of total revenue.
After the major devaluation of the currency at the beginning of the year 2021, Sudan operation under the Sudani brand, generated revenue of $140 million. In addition, it was observed that Sudani revenue was growing faster than the mobile market in Sudan. Combined with the operational transformation that has been undertaken with better controls and efficiency, and expansion in the 4G mobile network, the operation achieved EBITDA of $68 million, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 48%. Net income reached $36.9 million compared to losses of $9 million in 2020.
The Senegal operation under the Expresso brand, launched the 4G mobile network in April 2021 to enhance the mobile data services and to address the growth in the digital services market. The 2021 results have shown that this effort is bearing results with a growth that is higher than the market in traffic and revenue (6%) YOY to achieve $69.1 million. The market is still growing for digital services and Expresso is positioned to expand and to increase the market share in terms of customers and revenue.
In Mauritania, Chinguitel launched the 4G mobile network in the Q3 of 2021 to address the growing demand for data services. The revenue increased by 1% YOY to achieve USD 61.4 million.
As for the international markets of data service and bulk capacity, the wholesale business unit (ETG) is expanding with various arrangements with partners across Africa and the world. Thus, allowing Sudatel to benefit from the investments that have been made in the optic fiber networks across Sudan (with 16,000 kms of optic fiber) and the submarine cables on the East African and West African coasts. STG is working to enhance connectivity across Africa and to facilitate connectivity to Sudan’s neighboring African countries through capitalizing on Sudan’s geographic location.
It's worth mentioning that STG has pioneered in launching the 5G technology trials in Sudan along with the use of Open RAN technologies to base enhanced businesses in the future.