Deon Fredericks appointed Telkom CFO

By Phumeza Tontsi for Telkom Business
Johannesburg, 17 Sep 2014

Telkom today announced the appointment of Deon Fredericks as Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect.

Fredericks has held senior positions at Telkom since 1993, including the position of deputy CFO since 2011. He has been in the acting capacity as CFO since the suspension of former CFO Jacques Schindeh"utte in October last year.

Says Telkom Group CEO Sipho Maseko: "It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Deon, who I believe has proven his expert ability for this important role.

"He has been at the helm for the past 10 months, playing an instrumental role in Telkom's transformation journey, and has been integral to restoring the financial health of the company. Deon's prudent and considered approach makes him the ideal candidate for the position and a sound addition to our executive leadership team.

"There is still much to be achieved and I believe that Deon is paramount to guiding the financial direction required for us to move forward in our turnaround objectives successfully."

Fredericksis a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Business Management, with honours. He has held various directorships including Vodacom, Trudon and the Telkom Retirement Fund. Fredericks is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Management of Accountants in the United Kingdom.

"Telkom's transformation journey is well under way and I look forward to ramping up efforts to establish the financial stability and sustainability of the company," says Fredericks.

"We have been on a determined path to appoint the industry's best to lead Telkom - I am pleased that with Deon's appointment, our EXCO structure is complete and ready to take Telkom forward," concluded Maseko.

Telkom

Telkom SA ("Telkom") is a full-service telecommunications provider for South Africa. The company offers wholesale, business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of voice and data services and products, in support of the company's mission statement - seamlessly connecting people to a better life. As of 31 March 2014, Telkom had approximately 3.6 million telephone access lines in service and 475 144 ports connected via MSAN access.

The company had consolidated operating revenue of R32.5 billion and profit after tax of R1.577 million for the year ended 31 March 2014, excluding the net curtailment gain. Total assets amounted to R39.4 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R22.8 billion as of 31 March 2014. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R1.2 billion for the year ended 31 March 2014.

The company offers business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

* Fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription-based value-added voice services and calling plans;
* Fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, computers, routers, modems, telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;
* Interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
* Fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and Internet access and related IT services;
* Data centre operations include e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
* W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next-generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
* Mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through the company's mobile brand called Telkom Mobile;
* Telkom Mobile is continuously expanding its long-term evolution (LTE) coverage. It is the company's latest generation of mobile network technology that provides superfast mobile wireless broadband with low latency (or buffering) that gives users an unsurpassed experience for their everyday data connectivity needs. It is a step up from 3G, offering up to 90Mbps download speed and up to 25Mbps upload speeds - approximately three to four times faster than current 3G speeds. It is an ideal option for use in areas where there is no ADSL infrastructure; and
* Convergence is one of the company's key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom. The company will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of its mission statement: seamlessly connecting people to a better life.

The Telkom Group consists of Telkom as well as two main subsidiaries, namely Trudon and Swiftnet. Trudon provides several directory service offerings off both physical and electronic platforms and Swiftnet provides a suite of services, including traditional connectivity services for point-of sale, managed SIM services and customised wireless and wired Virtual Private Network Services.

Telkom is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and has a market capitalisation of approximately R17.5 billion (as at 31 March 2014).

Editorial contacts