By Shaun Murison
MTN Group provides a welcome surprise in terms of healthy dividend increase.
The MTN Group released interim results which were a slight miss on consensus forecasts in terms of revenue, but provided a welcome surprise in terms of healthy dividend increase.
Not unexpectedly, revenue in South Africa declined by 7% as competitive pricing in a saturated market and the ICASA imposed mobile termination rates provided a challenging voice call environment. The interconnect revenue declined by 30.4%, while data revenue increased 13.7%.
Total group revenue did however increase 10.7% to R72.759bn, boosted by international operations, predominantly Nigeria. Despite having a fine and SIM sale ban imposed by the Nigerian communications regulator as well as aggressive pricing competition, Nigeria remained the Groups cash cow, increasing revenue by 21.5%. The region’s R16.28bn EBITDA amounted to just over 48% of the company’s total EBITDA of R33.663bn.
Data revenue continued to be the engine of growth for the MTN Group (as it is for the telecoms industry), adding 38.9% on the 2013 interim comparative. Data sales for the half year amounted to 17.5% of total group revenue. The group’s subscribers were up 3.5% to 215 million. Headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased 9% over the 2013 comparative while the interim dividend was raised by 20.3% to 445c per share.
This article originally appeared on IG.com
