Safaricom Profit Jump Beats Estimates Despite Ethiopia Loss

Safaricom Plc expects to grow earnings by half this year, underpinned by customer acquisition in its nascent business in populous Ethiopia, where it sees losses narrowing.

The Vodacom Group Ltd. unit is eyeing as much as 150 billion shillings ($1.16 billion) of earnings before tax and interest in the financial year ending in March. In Ethiopia, the loss on this basis will narrow by more than a half to as little as 23 billion shillings, the company said after posting an 11% increase in full-year profit.