Standup9ja: MTN returns to strong profit after FG fine

Standup9ja: MTN returns to strong profit after FG fine

The MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter yesterday said the company has recorded huge profits in its first half of 2017 operations.

During the period, the company made a post-tax profit of ZAR4.9 billion (about $370m) compared with a loss of ZAR6.3 billion ($470m) in the same period in 2016.

Its figures for H1[first half] 2016  were heavily impacted by paying the first instalment of a $1.67 billion fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which was significantly larger than the H1 2017 instalment.

On a country-by-country basis, the company pointed to strong results in Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana in the opening six months of 2017.

However, MTN added that it had also been impacted by hyperinflation.

The increase in usage of digital and data services by customers drove the company’s financial growth in the first half of 2017, though foreign exchange movements and macro-economic conditions continued to hamper its performance in Sudan and Syria along with operational issues in Cameroon, where the data network was periodically unavailable in some areas during the first half of the year.

In a statement to investors Shuter said: “We are seeing pleasing progress in our key growth drivers of data and digital services against headwinds of challenging macro-economic conditions and foreign exchange currency pressures.”

He added its focus for H2 was to continue its ongoing review of operations and complete its network investment programme across its markets.

He said the number of customers across the group taking data services increased 8.3 per cent year on year to account for 28 million of its 231.8 million customers by the end of June. Group subscriber numbers declined from 232.6 million at the same time in 2016.

Adjusted figures to remove sharp currency movements in several of its markets put revenue up 6.7 per cent year on year to $4.8 billion.

The company said the decline in connections was a result of “the Group’s initiative to modernise subscriber definitions” to reflect the “changing mix of revenue streams.