MTN Group FY revenue up 12% to ZAR 136.5 bln on weak rand

News Wireless Africa 5 MRT 2014
MTN Group FY revenue up 12% to ZAR 136.5 bln on weak rand
MTN Group posted a 12 percent increase in its revenue for 2013 to ZAR 136 billion compared with 2012, boosted by a weakening of the rand against a number of currencies. For the year as a whole, the rand declined by 18.3 percent on average against the US dollar. On a constant currency basis, revenue increased by 3.1 percent. 

This was largely the result of a 6.1 percent decline in revenue in MTN South Africa and 5.7 percent growth in MTN Nigeria, its two biggest markets. Organic revenues were also up 17.8 percent in Uganda, 13.0 percent in Ghana, 11.9 percent in Cameroon and 34.5 percent in Sudan. 

Helping to offset pressure on voice prices, data revenues (excluding SMS) rose 41.4 percent, supported by expansion of 3G networks and a rise in data users of 37.4 percent to 80.6 million. Data accounted for 15.1 percent of revenue, up 3.1 percent points from 2012. MTN said it expects voice prices to fall further in 2014, after a 14.9 percent drop in 2013 in the average price per minute in dollars.

Group EBITDA increased 13.0 percent to ZAR 58.82 billion in 2013, excluding the profit from the sale of towers. The EBITDA margin increased 0.4 percentage points to 43.1 percent, driven by ongoing efficiency measures. The progress made in cost savings was offset to an extent by the lower EBITDA margin in the South African operation, which was largely driven by the decline in revenue.  

Net finance costs fell 67.4 percent to ZAR 1.23 billion. This was largely thanks to foreign currency gains of ZAR 1.07 billion as a result of ZAR 2.23 billion in functional currency gains in Mauritius, partly offset by foreign exchange losses incurred on the Sudan working capital accounts of ZAR 778 million. The increase in interest costs was largely caused by higher debt levels in Nigeria as the business invested in its capex programme.

Basic headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased by 27.3 percent to ZAR 13.86, and attributable earnings per share (EPS) increased by 27.4 percent to ZAR 14.34.

Capex increased by 4.6 percent to ZAR 30.16 billion, of which ZAR 2.56 billion related to foreign currency movements. MTN said the large investment in capex during the year significantly addressed both network quality and capacity, which will be key factors supporting continued growth over the medium term. Group subscribers increased 9.8 percent to 207.8 million at year-end, notwithstanding ongoing subscriber registration programmes in a number of markets. 

MTN said it targets net additions of 16.75 million in 2014, led by its operations in Nigeria, Iran and South Africa. The focus in 2014 will be on turning around the South Africa business as well as accelerating growth in mobile money services, which counted 14.8 million users at the end of 2013. 

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