MTN Group reports solid underlying operational performance and strategic progress in H1

In the first half of 2024, MTN Group delivered strong commercial momentum, executed key strategic initiatives, and sustained the strength and resilience of the balance sheet. In constant currency, data service revenue increased by 21% in the six months to 30 June 2024 and fintech service revenue climbed by 27%.

In line with our Ambition 2025 strategy, we made good progress to further increase the level of local ownership of MTN Ghana and MTN Uganda, with gross proceeds of R1.7 billion. The Group also completed the orderly exit of operations in Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau, as part of portfolio optimisation and simplifying the group.

At the end of June 2024, MTN had 288 million subscribers across 18 markets. Of these, 150 million were active data subscribers – up more than 9% – who lifted data traffic on MTN’s network by more than a third to 9 054 petabytes. 

At 66 million, the number of active Mobile Money users was also more than 9% higher, boosting MTN’s fintech transaction volumes by 18% to 9.7 billion in the period.

To support this continued acceleration in demand, MTN committed over R13 billion in capital expenditure to expand our 4G and 5G networks and business IT systems. The Group’s balance sheet remained strong, with the holding company leverage ratio at 1.6x, and an improved mix of US dollar debt to rand debt at 22:78, well within our target mix of 40:60.

The strong underlying performance was masked by the impact of weaker currencies – most particularly the naira against the rand – as well as the ongoing conflict in Sudan on the Group’s reported results.

“Although the commercial momentum and strategy execution were solid in H1, macro headwinds impacted reported results,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “The sharp devaluation of the naira over the period had the most significant impact on reported results.”

Impacted by the naira devaluation, the translation into the reporting currency and the conflict in Sudan, adjusted headline earnings per share (HEPS) decreased by 50% to 373 cents and adjusted return on equity (ROE) declined by 4.2 percentage points to 20.2%.

“MTN South Africa, which has now completed its network resilience investment, demonstrated encouraging progress from Q1 24 to Q2 24 in terms of topline growth and earnings,” he said, adding that the investment positioned it to provide an average network availability of more than 95% under stage 6 loadshedding. At the end of June 2024, network availability was 99%, supported by reduced loadshedding in Q2 24.

“MTN Nigeria delivered a strong underlying performance, despite the severe macro impacts on its financial performance,” Mupita said, noting good progress in key initiatives including acceleration of revenue, optimisation of capex and the reduction of its US dollar-denominated obligations.

MTN Nigeria recently concluded the re-negotiation of its tower contracts with IHS and ATC. The revised contracts will support earnings and cashflow development in the business as part of the initiatives to resolve the negative equity position of MTN Nigeria. Discussions around tariff increases for voice and data continue with the authorities in Nigeria.

MTN Group and MTN Zakhele Futhi also announced through a joint statement the intention to extend the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment scheme by up to three years, subject to shareholder approvals. MTN Group and MTN South Africa each have a level 1 B-BBEE contributor status.

Looking ahead, MTN – which this year celebrates 30 years in the business – reconfirmed its medium-term guidance and anticipates paying a full year dividend for FY24 of 330 cents per share.

“We will continue on the execution of our Ambition 2025 strategy to drive growth and unlock value for all stakeholders over the medium term,” said Mupita. “The near-term macro backdrop continues to be challenging across our markets; GDP, inflation and currencies are expected to improve into 2025 across key markets.”