LAST week was a good one for Telkom investors, who saw the company's share price rise 61% to exceed the R60 a share mark.
The share price closed at R65,30 on Friday.
Telkom's strong performance has resulted in the share price more than doubling since its initial public offering price of R28.
Investors received an early New Year's gift last Monday when the company declared a one-off interim dividend of 90c a share. The payment will made on December 29.
Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe has said government will also received its share of R197m in share dividends.
"This windfall is a result of Telkom's strong performance and something that we can all be proud of," Radebe said.
Telkom's strong maiden interim results as a listed company also added power to its performance on the local and New York stock exchanges.
Headline earnings grew 171% to 335,9c a share from 123,9c last year. With growing revenue and healthy net profit on the back of a 21% debt reduction, analysts said Telkom was "doing something right".
Using Thursday's closing price of R65, the local investors will see a 130% rise in their investment since listing.
Investors who bought shares under the discounted Khulisa offer will see a 190% increase in their investment.
The offer was discounted 20% and attracted more than 100000 new investors.
Radebe said: "The listing of Telkom in the manner in which we did it has brought unprecedented success to the people once left out of the mainstream economy. It has helped in a small way to enliven interest in economic and financial matters, and it has also proved of value to established investors and market players."
The bullish performance of Telkom, though, came too late for its former empowerment shareholder Ucingo.
The empowerment company had bought 3% of Telkom shares at R33,90 a share in 1990, hoping the shares would gain in value by the time Telkom listed.
But when Telkom listed at R28 a share in March this year, the empowerment firm was forced to hand over their Telkom shares to its funders as repayment to their spiralling debt of R860m.
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