/ 28 July 2010

Acting Telkom CEO vows transparency

The acting CEO of embattled fixed-line telecoms operator Telkom, Jeffrey Hedberg, on
Wednesday vowed that the group would become a more transparent organisation.

Speaking at a press conference in Rosebank, Johannesburg, Hedberg unveiled a five-point strategy to get the company back on track. “My focus is driving the future,” he said.

Hedberg pointed to leadership and organisation as a cornerstone to the group’s future success, to provide clarity and communications and to better align the group.

“It is important to revive the culture in Telkom, to inspire our people, to get them moving, and delivering,” he said, adding that it included bringing the right people into the organisation.

A second key point of the plan included Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) and cash-flow improvement. “I am a numbers guy,” he said.

He highlighted the imminent launch of Telkom’s mobile business as a third part of the group’s plan. “The plan is to launch this calendar year,” he said. “The mobile business is moving in the right direction.”

Hedberg pointed to broadband as the fourth part of the group’s strategy.

“Broadband will be one of the key differentiating factors that drives this business forward,” he said.

The group’s failing Nigerian operation, Multi-Links, formed the final pillar of the group plan. “There are indeed a number of challenges we need to address,” he said of Multi-Links.

Hedberg said that in order to meet the group’s challenges, he would adopt a number of guiding principles, including transparency.

“Sometimes transparency hurts. I may not like it, but I see it,” he said.

Also attending the press conference, Telkom chairperson Jeff Molobela said: “It is a about time we become transparent.”

No government interference
Meanwhile, both Hedberg and Molobela fended off suggestions of government interference within the group. The government owns a 39% stake in Telkom. Hedberg said: “There has been no interference from government. I’ve recently had a very positive meeting with government.”

“Every shareholder has the right to try to influence what will happen, but it’s really up to the board,” said Molobela. He noted that government is able to appoint five directors to the board out of 12.

The senior executives also admitted that there were several vacancies within the group that needed to be filled, including a replacement for CFO Peter Nelson, who recently resigned. And the Telkom board has commenced a process to appoint a new group chief executive.

In June, Telkom reported that normalised headline earnings per share from continuing operations decreased by 11,2% to 473 cents for the year ended March 2010. Ebitda decreased 15,2% to R9,8-billion. — I-Net Bridge