MTN Nigeria Grows Revenue by 12% in Nine Months

• MTN Nigeria Grows Revenue by 12% in Nine Months

MTN Nigeria on Thursday reported a 12.1 percent increase in revenue for the period ended September 30, 2019.

In the financial statements released through the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the telecom giant grew to N854.9 billion during the period.

While the subscribers increased by 0.1 million to 61.6 million, active data users grew by 1.6 million to 22.3 million.

Accordingly, capital expenditure rose by 39.5 percent to N154.1 billion.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) surged by 39.3 percent to N460.1 billion in the first nine months. EBITDA margin grew by 10.5 percent to 53.7 percent.

Speaking on the performance, Ferdi Moolman, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, said, “Our performance was very encouraging, demonstrating the resilience of our business despite a challenging operating environment. We sustained double-digit growth in service revenue led by growth in voice and data revenue.

“We recorded 61.6 million subscribers, representing a 0.1 million increase QoQ. We were required to undertake a SIM re-registration process, which resulted in a disconnection of around 0.6 million active subscribers, limiting base growth. During the quarter, we focused on the end-to-end optimisation and repositioning of our data offerings,” he said.

The chief executive officer noted that the company increased investments in 4G network expansion during the period.

“We also changed our pricing strategy, placing us in an even stronger competitive position going forward.

“As a result, we have begun to see promising results with active data subscriber net additions of 1.6 million and 4G population coverage at over 35 per cent in 64 cities. Data traffic volume also increased by over 68 per cent, while data revenue rose by 34.9 per cent year-on-year.

“We continued to sustain EDITDA margin expansion and operating leverage with EBITDA growth ahead of revenue and inflation at 39.3 per cent, while growth in profit after tax and earnings per share remained strong at 29 per cent apiece,” he said.

Commenting on the $2 billion tax suit, he said: “We remain resolute that MTN Nigeria has not committed any offence and will continue to defend this position.”

MTN Nigeria’s earning per share rose by 29 per cent.