By Nqobile Dludla
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -MTN Group suffered a 69% slump in full-year earnings, Africa’s biggest telecom operator reported on Monday, hit by a devaluation of the Nigerian naira and operational challenges in Sudan.
South Africa-headquartered MTN said its reported headline earnings per share (HEPS) – one of the main profit measures in the country – fell to 98 cents in the year to December 31, down from 315 cents in 2023.
Nigeria has suffered chronic dollar shortages that have forced authorities to devalue the naira as part of the government’s measures to stabilise the currency and attract investment.
Coupled with high inflation and interest rates, this has driven up costs and widened MTN Nigeria’s pre-tax loss by more than 200% to 550.3 billion naira ($355.76 million).
The Nigeria business has a number of initiatives aimed at restoring profit and addressing its position when liabilities exceed assets, including renegotiating tower leases and a tariff hike, which was approved in January.
“That pain which we’ve had for 18 months, is abating somewhat … the business is growing very strongly. So I’m actually very bullish and confident that we’ll see strong recovery in Nigeria,” Group CEO Ralph Mupita said in a media call.
In Sudan, the group’s operational and financial performance was hampered by ongoing armed conflict in the country, resulting in impairments of 11.7 billion rand ($643.40 million).
Mupita said that MTN has “started to see sites coming back on air,” in areas where there was ongoing conflict such as in the capital Khartoum, where its network was down since April 2023.
MTN Group, which has 291 million customers across 16 markets in Africa, said its group service revenue decreased by 15% to 177.8 billion rand. In constant currency, group service revenue rose 14%.
In South Africa, service revenue rose by 3.1%, buoyed by data, fintech, digital and enterprise revenue.
It declared a final dividend of 345 cents per share, and said it anticipates paying a minimum dividend of 370 cents in this new financial year ended December 2025.
($1 = 1,546.8200 naira)
($1 = 18.1888 rand)
(Reporting by Nqobile DludlaEditing by David Goodman and David Evans)
