Infrastructure

Profile: CIVH is active in the telecommunications and information technology sectors. The key operating companies of the group are Dark Fibre Africa Proprietary Limited (DFA) and Vumatel Proprietary Limited (Vumatel), which build and own fibre-optic networks. DFA and Vumatel are 100% held subsidiaries of Maziv Proprietary Limited (Maziv), a wholly owned subsidiary of CIVH.

Corporate information

Sustainability measures

CIVH has a March financial year-end and therefore its results for the 12 months ended 31 March 2025 have been included in Remgro’s results for the year under review. The contribution of CIVH’s operations to Remgro’s headline earnings for the year under review amounted to a loss of R93 million compared to a loss of R75 million in the prior year.

The results of CIVH for the prior year included a profit on the reversal of a guarantee provision of R108 million from discontinued operations, while the current year results were negatively impacted by a fair value loss on interest rate hedges of R67 million (2024: profit of R36 million). After excluding the aforementioned non-recurring items for both reporting periods, the headline earnings of CIVH increased by 57.5% from a loss of R268 million in the comparative year to a loss of R114 million in the current year.

The group is operationally cash generative and focused on reinvesting excess operating cash flow into the enhancement of its network resilience and increasing its installed customer base and subscriber uptake during the year under review. CIVH’s revenue for the year ended 31 March 2025 increased by 6.3% from R6 353 million to R6 755 million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from continuing operations increased by 9.3% from R4 290 million to R4 689 million driven by revenue growth as demand from enterprise and residential customers contributed to increased uptake.

DFA is South Africa’s leading open-access fibre infrastructure and connectivity provider. The company builds, installs, manages, and maintains a high-capacity fibre network designed to carry both metropolitan and long-haul telecommunications traffic. The network is leased to telecommunications companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) under an open-access, wholesale commercial model.

DFA owns and operates over 14 500 km of fibre assets, with established networks across major metropolitan areas including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria. It also maintains a growing presence in secondary cities such as East London, Polokwane, Emalahleni and George, among others. DFA’s number of active links increased by 7.6% to 70 434 (2024: 65 433) driven by an increase in demand for business connectivity.

DFA company revenue for the financial year ended 31 March 2025 increased by 1.5% to R2 757 million (2024: R2 715 million) driven by demand in its fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) vertical. Despite this low revenue growth in DFA’s revenue, operating profit increased by 4.2% from R1 083 million to R1 129 million, as the business managed to contain costs increases.

Vumatel is an open-access fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) provider and leases its infrastructure to ISPs, who in turn provide broadband retail internet services to its end customers.

Vumatel is the FTTH leader in both the homes passed and connected homes market in South Africa, achieving a market share status of approximately 32% as measured on both of these metrics. Vumatel remains a growth asset for the group as it continues to seek infrastructure expansion into identified lower Living Standards Measure (LSM) areas and accelerating connections in both its traditional core network and lower LSM Vumatel Reach areas. Vumatel limited its growth in homes passed during the period as it focused more on increasing its subscriber uptake or number of active connections. Homes passed at 31 March 2025 increased by only 2% to 2 040 231, while subscribers grew by 18.3% to 864 208 (2024: 730 259).

Vumatel revenue for the year increased by 8.4% to R3 841 million compared to R3 543 million for the prior year, driven primarily through its subscriber uptake growth. The healthy revenue growth and focus on cost management resulted in an operating profit increase of 15.4% to R1 374 million (2024: R1 191 million) for the year under review.

Maziv continues to support various CSI initiatives aimed at creating sustainable ecosystems in the communities in which the business operates. The goal is to contribute meaningfully and sustainably to these communities leading to strong ties that speak to the essence of the brand, a distinction that will set Maziv apart from the competition. Focus areas include education, safety, environment and healthcare. The business remains committed to its schools project, where 913 schools have been connected with a free 1 Gbps service offering.