MTN Group's revenue decreased by 18.5 percent to ZAR 64.315 billion in the first six months of 2017. Excluding currency effects, revenue rose 6.7 percent, underpinned by 10.8 percent growth in its largest market Nigeria and a 5.2 percent improvement in service revenue growth in South Africa. MTN Uganda, Ghana and Ivory Coast also contributed positively to the group's top-line growth. MTN Cameroon experienced a challenging period, negatively impacted by the data network shutdown in some parts of the country in the first quarter.
Data revenue increased by 31.9 percent to ZAR 13.95 billion, supported by improved quality and capacity of networks in key markets. Digital revenue increased by 24.7 percent, driven mainly by mobile financial services.
EBITDA decreased by 3.1 percent to ZAR 24.39 billion, and net profit declined to ZAR 49.25 billion from ZAR 62.53 billion in 2016. The EBITDA margin declined by 4.2 percentage points to 32.9 percent. The results were hurt by impairment charges of ZAR 1.690 billion on MTN Sudan and ZAR 1.125 billion on MTN Syria, as well as pressure on costs in Nigeria from the currency devaluation.
Reported headline earnings per share were ZAR 2.17, compared to a loss of ZAR 2.71 a year ago, impacted by the Nigerian regulatory fine of ZAR 4.74.
Subscriber numbers decreased by 3.6 percent to 231.8 million at the end of June, impacted by losses in Nigeria and Ghana. This was largely a result of the group's initiative to modernise subscriber definitions to reflect the business's changing mix of revenue streams. The implementation of the new definitions continues and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Capex decreased by 25.2 percent to ZAR 10.31 billion. Capex in the first half of the year was slower than expected, impacted by limited foreign currency availability in Nigeria, some execution challenges as well as the seasonality of the capex cycle, the company said. While capex is expected to accelerate in H2, MTN cut its outlook for the full year to ZAR 30.0 billion from ZAR 34.8 billion.
MTN said it's on track to achieve its full-year guidance, despite the economic challenges in its markets. The company reiterated plans to list MTN Nigeria in 2018 and said it will complete a transaction to increase local ownership in MTN Ghana by the end of this year.
The company declared an interim dividend of ZAR 2.50 per share, in line with an expected full-year pay-out of ZAR 7.00 per share.
The company said it does not expect its recent credit ratings downgrade following the sovereign downgrade of South Africa to have a material impact on existing facilities or the cost of new funding in 2017.
