And with bated breath Kenyans tuned into Safaricom’s live stream of its 2011/2012 full year results. Others were glued to their Twitter timelines and Facebook pages and others actually went for the announcement, almost as if it was history in the making. Like we predicted yesterday, Safaricom has reported quite some healthy financials. And like we said, double-digit. Yes. More than last years? No.

For starters, the mega telco reported a 12.83% increase in total revenue from KES 94.83 billion in 2010/2011 to KES 107 billion in 2011/2012. Revenues from voice increased 9% to KES 68.96 billion while non-voice revenues grew 4% to account for 29% of the total revenues. Non-voice revenue was mainly supported by the growth of M-PESA which pitched in 16% of the firm’s total revenue in the year. M-PESA on its own had its revenues grow 43% to KES 16.9 billion supported by a 6% growth in registered users to 14.9 million. M-PESA’s revenue comes mainly in the form of the charges they levy on you, say the KES 5 they may charge you to send someone KES 100 via M-PESA. The company’s direct costs also grew, up 16.73% from KES 37.24 billion in 2010/2011 to KES 43.47 billion in 2011/2012. The full-year operating costs increased 19% to KES 26 billion, “full-year operating costs” referring to payroll, marketing, network and IT and other operating expenses. The firm had capital expenditure of KES 25.28 billion with about the total number of base stations increasing from 2,501 in March 2011 to 2,690 in March 2012. A base station isn’t cheap to construct and maintain I imagine. They may be as pricey as television ads considering they spent the same KES 26 billion on both operating expenses (like ads) and capital expenditures (like base stations that would improve network connectivity in your area).

At the end, Safaricom was on the way to post a bigger net profit than last year. Until the Kenya shilling depreciated, or so they seem to say. In 2010/2011, the company had gain on its foreign exchange of about KES 40 million shillings but in 2011/2012 the company suffered forex losses of KES 1.08 billion. It doesn't help their case that they paid net interest of KES 1.70 billion in 2011/2012 while it received KES 1.08 billion in interest in 2010/1011. This brought the firm’s net profit down to KES 12.63 billion, down 4% from 2010/2011’s KES 13.16 net profit.

Down, down, down.

In the last 3 years, Safaricom’s net profits have reduced from KES 15.15 billion in 2009/2010 to KES 13.16 billion in 2010/2011 to KES 12.63 billion in 2011/2012, an average drop of KES 840 million a year. And though the company remains hugely profit-making, this is not a good statistic. Shareholders however stand to get a 10% increase on their dividends this year! Each ordinary shareholder will get an extra 2 cents on each share with the recommended dividend at KES 0.22.