MTN Group said its service revenue increased by 19.7 percent to ZAR 81.9 billion in the first six months to 30 June from ZAR 80.2 billion in the same period in 2020. This was led by growth of 9.3 percent at MTN South Africa, 23.8 percent at MTN Nigeria and 25.5 percent at MTN Ghana. The group also benefited from double-digit overall top-line growth from the regions.
EBITDA before one-off items increased by 24 percent to nearly ZAR 39 billion. The group's EBITDA margin expanded by 1.6 percentage points to 44.9 percent.
MTN Group had 277.3 million voice subscribers in its 21 markets, down 2.3 million from the same period in 2020 because of industry-wide SIM registration regulations in Nigeria. MTN had 117 million active data customers, almost 49 million active Mobile Money users, and 8 million users of its Ayoba instant messaging platform.
Reported headline earnings per share (HEPS) declined by 10 percent, hit by non-operational and one-off items, which included accounting adjustments related to the Middle East portfolio as well as material Covid-19 donations. Excluding these, adjusted HEPS increased by 31.5 percent.
This supported the expansion of adjusted return on equity, which was up by more than 4 percentage points to 18.3 percent. In line with previous guidance, no interim dividend was declared. MTN invested capex of ZAR 14.8 billion on an IFRS16 reported basis, which is 7.7 percent higher year-on-year.
MTN Group president and chief executive officer Ralph Mupita said notwithstanding the many challenges presented by the pandemic, MTN delivered a solid H1, exceeding most medium-term targets through sustained commercial momentum, as it executed its Ambition 2025 strategy.
MTN said it reduced holding company debt to ZAR 36.7 billion from ZAR 43.3 billion, and the holdco leverage reduced to 1.4x in the half year. This was boosted by cash inflows received from operating companies of ZAR 9.3 billion, which included ZAR 4.0 billion from Nigeria, as well as ZAR 1.8 billion in proceeds from the sale of its stake in Belgacom International Carrier Services.
