CIVH is the parent company of fibre network operators Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa.
Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH), the parent company of fibre network operators Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), has posted a loss.
This emerged when JSE-listed Remgro, which owns CIVH, today announced its annual financial results for the year ended 30 June.
The results come after the Competition Appeal Court recently approved the long-delayed R14 billion merger of Vodacom, South Africa’s largest mobile operator, and fibre infrastructure giant Maziv.
During the reporting period, CIVH’s contribution to Remgro’s headline earnings amounted to a loss of R93 million (2024: a loss of R75 million).
Remgro explains that the decrease in CIVH’s earnings is mainly due to a profit on the reversal of a guarantee provision of R108 million from discontinued operations in the comparative year, while the year under review was negatively impacted by a fair value loss on interest rate hedges of R67 million (31 March 2024: a profit of R36 million).
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Excluding these non-recurring items, CIVH’s contribution to Remgro’s headline earnings amounted to a loss of R65 million (2024: a loss of R153 million), it adds.
CIVH’s revenue for the year ended 31 March 2025 increased by 6.3% to R6.75 billion, while EBITDA from continuing operations for the same period increased by 9.3% driven by revenue growth as demand from enterprise and retail customers contributed to increased uptake.
According to Remgro, Vumatel’s revenue increased by 8.4% to R3.8 billion, driven primarily through its subscriber uptake growth.
It notes that the healthy revenue growth and focus on cost management resulted in an operating profit increase of 15.4% for the 12 months ended 31 March 2025.
DFA’s revenue increased 1.5% to R2.7 billion, driven by demand in its fibre-to-the-business vertical.
Despite this low revenue growth, Remgro says operating profit increased by 4.2% to R1.12 billion as the business managed to contain cost increases.
Providing an update on the Vodacom-Maziv merger deal, Remgro says Vodacom would, through a combination of assets of approximately R4.2 billion and cash of at least R6 billion, acquire a minimum of 30%, with the option to acquire from CIVH a further 10%, of the ordinary shares of Maziv, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CIVH.
Maziv holds inter alia the interests in Vumatel and DFA.
According to Remgro, the terms were subject to ongoing negotiation between the parties to extend the longstop date and allow more time for the regulatory approval to be obtained.
During July, the parties agreed to certain amendments to the transaction agreements. The material amendments are that Vodacom will acquire 30% of the ordinary shares of Maziv, through a combination of assets of R4.9 billion and cash of R6.1 billion, with a further option to acquire top up shares up to 34.95% of Maziv indirectly from Remgro (through CIVH).
Remgro explains that the transaction value has also been agreed and makes provision for agreed leakages and new assets acquired by Maziv in exchange for the issue of shares between 1 April and five business days before the transaction implementation date.
As a result of the proposed transaction, Remgro’s indirect interest in DFA and Vumatel will dilute with the entrance of Vodacom as a shareholder. However, Remgro will also obtain an indirect interest in the assets contributed by Vodacom.
It was also previously reported that the Competition Tribunal prohibited the proposed transaction during October 2024 and that the transaction parties lodged a notice of appeal with the Competition Appeals Court, which set down dates for the hearing from 22 to 24 July 2025.
Maziv and Vodacom subsequently reached an agreement with the Competition Commission on revised conditions, resulting in the appeal proceeding on an unopposed basis on 22 July 2025.
During August, the Competition Appeals Court ruled to set aside the order of the Competition Tribunal to prohibit the merger and that the transaction be approved subject to the conditions proposed by the merger parties.
The transaction is still subject to approval by the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa.
“Remgro and CIVH firmly believe the proposed transaction will deliver significant benefits to South African consumers and the broader economy,” says Remgro.
“These include the very real and tangible positive social impacts relating to critical issues, such as the democratisation of the internet in lower income areas, greater access to cheaper fibre to the broader South Africa, as well as the potential for job creation, and ultimately growth of the economy.”
