MTN Group service revenue rises by 15.2%

MTN Group, Africa’s largest telco, mentioned that its fintech unit grew by 22%, whilst MoMo person progress remained flat. 

On Monday, MTN Group shared that its service revenue grew for the primary half of the 12 months to $5.6 billion from $4.8 billion in the identical interval in 2022 in fixed foreign money. This represents a 15.2% enhance for the telco, which is current in 16 African nations. Multinational firms like MTN use fixed foreign money trade charges to eradicate the impact of fluctuations when calculating monetary efficiency numbers for publication in monetary statements. 

According to MTN, this progress got here from a 24% enhance in revenue from knowledge providers, 22% from fintech providers, and a 6% enhance from voice providers. The group’s pretax revenue shrank from $979 million to $964 million. The group’s EBITDA margin additionally diminished from 44% to 43.6%. The group mentioned this was due to inflation and overseas trade depreciation, which positioned upward stress on prices.

The variety of subscribers elevated by 3.6% year-on-year to 291 million. The group mentioned its progress was impacted by the battle in Sudan. Active knowledge subscribers grew by 7.4% to 139 million, with MoMo prospects remaining secure at 60 million. The group mentioned Nigeria’s money shortage and a give attention to lively wallets and base clean-up in Cote d’Ivoire had been guilty for MoMo’s flat progress charge, whilst lively brokers grew by 18% to 1.3 million. 

In line with coverage, no interim dividend was declared for H1, however the minimal ultimate dividend for the top of the 12 months will probably be $0.17. The group additionally mentioned it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Mastercard for the cost firm to purchase a minority stake in its fintech enterprise, which it values at $5.2 billion.