South African telecommunications company Telkom on Tuesday posted a 76.6% fall in full-year earnings because of inflationary pressures and increased operational costs amid the country's crippling power cuts.
The largely state-owned telecommunications company said its headline earnings per share - the main profit measure in South Africa - fell to 134.6 cents from 575.3 cents in the 12 months ended March 31.
Its headline earnings per share "excludes the impact of the rest ructuring cost of (1,065 million rand) and the tax impact of (288 million rand) on profit after tax," the company said in a statement.
Like other South African telcos, the company has had to endure the country's worst rolling blackouts on record leaving businesses and households in the dark for up to 10 hours daily.
Telecoms have the added pressure of keeping phone networks running during the blackouts.
"Telkom has come through a year marred by unparalleled levels of loadshedding and an alarming number of incidents of theft and vandalism targeting network infrastruc ture," the company said in a statement referring to the power cuts.
