MTNN Reports Loss After Tax Of N519.1bn On Sustained Forex Pressure

MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN) Plc, recorded a net loss of N519.9 billion in its half year, ended June 30, 2024, reflecting sustained pressures from FX losses.

The Company results showed that the loss after tax grew by 506.4 per cent from N85.6 billion in H1, 2023 to N519.1 billion, while earnings per share recorded negative of N24.7 against a negative EPS of N4.1 in 2023.

MTNN’s revenue increased by 32.8 per cent to N1.539 trillion from N1.159 trillion in 2023, while operating expenses grew by 43.0 per cent to N422.670 billion.

Meanwhile, given the 39.7 per cent decline in naira as of H1, 2024 and MTNN’s sustained exposures to FCY lease liabilities, borrowings, and other payables, the company recorded a 95.2 per cent increase in net foreign exchange loss to N887.7 billion. In addition, net finance cost rose 96.0 per cent YoY to N168.2 billion.

Net asset value remained weak as protracted net losses led to a 14.1x decline in shareholders’ funds to negative of N577.7 billion. In contrast, total asset value increased by 3.02 per cent even as the return on asset remained negative at 32.1 per cent.

Speaking on the results, CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola said the macroeconomic conditions in Nigeria have been challenging during the period, saying that “notwithstanding, we continue to prioritise initiatives to mitigate these pressures while accelerating the growth of our business, and we remain encouraged by the robust momentum in the underlying performance of our commercial operations.”

He pointed out that “despite barring 8.6 million subscribers during H1, in line with the NCC directive, we managed to limit the decline in our base to 280,000; resulting in a 2.9 per cent YoY increase in our customers to 79.4 million. This outcome was supported by various initiatives we have deployed to retain affected customers, reduce churn and drive gross connections.

“Active data subscribers increased by approximately a million during H1 to 45.6 million. Despite the challenging macro conditions, we recorded increased voice traffic of 6.4 per cent and data traffic of 42.6 per cent, with data usage (GB per user) growth of 30.5 per cent to 10.6GB. This underscores the resilience in the demand for data.
“We are expanding our capacity to meet the increasing demand for our services.
This includes the construction of a tier 4 data centre with seven degrees of transmission connectivity, making it the largest and most resilient in West Africa. Once completed, the new data centre will support our growth plan and offer a secure and scalable environment for hosting servers and accessing cloud services.”

He explained that “we remain focused on driving wallet adoption and the growth of our merchant ecosystem, creating access to financial services and deepening financial inclusion in Nigeria.”

On outlook, Toriola stated that “as we continue to navigate the ongoing macroeconomic headwinds affecting businesses, we are focused on initiatives to accelerate our earnings recovery profile, strengthen our balance sheet, and restore our net asset position faster.”