How much top 3 Kenyan individual Safaricom shareholders made after Sh63B profit

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa today announced the FY 2023/2024 results for the year ending March 31, 2024.

Safaricom’s service revenue grew 13 per cent year on year (YoY) to Sh335.35 billion in FY24 mainly supported by M-PESA, mobile data and fixed revenues.

Overall group customers grew 6.8% YoY to 49.02 million while one-month active customers grew by 9.1% YoY to 37.70 million.

During the year, an interim dividend of Sh0.55 per ordinary share amounting to Sh22.04 billion was declared and paid.

The directors have also proposed a final dividend of Sh0.65 per ordinary share amounting to a total of Sh26.04 billion, to be approved at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on 25 July 2024.

This brings the total dividend for the year to Sh48.08 billion which represents Sh1.20 per share in respect of the year ended 31 March 2024.

The final dividend will be payable on or about August 31, 2024, to the shareholders on the register of members as of the close of business on July 31, 2024.

The dividend is calculated based on profit after tax attributable to equity holders of the company and excluding the hyperinflationary impact from Ethiopia numbers.

How much top 3 Kenyan individual Safaricom shareholders made after Sh63B profit

The top three individual Kenyan shareholders in Safaricom are Chirag Menesh Solanki & Kalavati Menesh Solanki who jointly own about 40.41 million shares and billionaire John Kibunga Kimani who holds 27.7 million shares.

This means that for the year ended March 31, 2024, the three will have earned Sh81.7 million.

That year, Kimani increased his stake in the company after acquiring an additional 8.64 million shares. He took advantage of the dip in the company’s share price at the time.

In the same year, Chirag & Kalavati reduced their shareholding by 131,000 shares.

East African individuals constitute 4 per cent of Safaricom's shareholding while foreign nationals comprise 0.01 per cent.

The Government of Kenya & Vodacom enjoy 35% shareholding each. Vodafone holds a 5 per cent stake, East African corporates 12 per cent, while foreign corporates shareholding represents 9 per cent.

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Summary of Safaricom’s FY24 results 

Group Business

The group's service revenue grew 13.4% Sh335.35 billion mainly supported by M-PESA, mobile data and fixed data.

Overall, the group customers grew 6.8% to 49.02 million while one-month active customers grew to 37.7 million.

Safaricom Kenya's overall market share stood at 65.9% as at December 2023.

The group's capital expenditure for the year ended March 31, 2024 stood at Sh93.54 billion with Sh46.25 billion being invested in rolling out operations in Ethiopia.

The group's profit for the year attributable to equity holders of the parent grew 1.2% YoY to Sh62.99 billion.

Profit for the Year (Net Income)

Net income grew 13.7% to Sh84.74 billion supported by M-PESA, mobile data and effective cost management initiatives in the period.

Safaricom Ethiopia made a loss of Sh42.09 billion. Out of this loss, Safaricom share was Sh21.76 billion due it 51% shareholding.

This brought the group's profit to Sh62.99 billion.

Tax

The group has been a major contributor to the revenues of the Government of Kenya and remitted Sh144.67 billion in duties, taxes and license fees in the year ended 31 March 2024.

This increased the total duties, taxes and fees paid since the inception of Safaricom PLC to Sh1.32 trillion

Kenya Business

Voice and Messaging

Voice revenue declined by 1.7% to Sh79.51 billion, reflecting the global impact of the downward trend of voice service.

Messaging grew 8.0% to Sh12.28 billion supported by 8.0% growth in average revenue per user (ARPU) to Sh47.33.

Voice and messaging revenue made up 27.8% of service revenue.

M-PESA

M-PESA revenue grew by 19.4% to Sh139.91 billion driven by increased usage.

Chargeable transactions per one-month active customers rose 33.9% to 31.51 while average revenue per user grew 16.1% to Sh361.32.

Total transaction value rose 9.4% Sh 39.39 trillion while volumes grew 34.7% to 28.33 billion transactions.

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One-month active M-PESA customers grew 0.9% to 32.41 million.

Lipa Na M-PESA active merchants grew 4.3% to 633.01k while Pochi tills stood at 632.68k as at the end of FY24.

M-PESA accounted for 42.2% of service revenue, further complementing traditional voice and messaging services.

Mobile Data

Mobile data revenue recorded double-digit growth of 18.0% Sh63.24 billion while average revenue per user grew marginally by 1.5% Sh242.71.

The number of smartphones on Safaricom network grew by 12.9% to 22.93 million. 4G devices grew by 27.5% to 16.85 million with 49.7% using more than 1GB while 5G devices rose by 79.3% to 669.71k.

Mobile data now accounts for 19.2% of Service Revenue.

Fixed Service and Wholesale Transit

Fixed service and wholesale transit revenue grew by 12.0% to Sh15.11 billion supported by growth in consumer revenue which rose 31.1% to Sh6.48 billion and 0.9% growth in enterprise revenue to Sh8.63 billion.

Fixed data market share stood at 36.7% as of December 2023 according to the Communications Authority of Kenya sector statistics report.

Fibre to the Home (FTTH) and fixed enterprise now account for 4.6% of service revenue.

FTTH customers grew 27.0% to 248.57k. FTTH penetration rose to 66.4% with homes connected growing 34.9% to 371.99k, while homes passed increased by 20.3% to 560.26k.

Fixed Enterprise customers grew by 13.1% to 59.46k.