MTN has increased subscribers by 4-million to 236,6-million in the quarter ended 31 March 2019.,
Active data subscribers increased quarter on quarter (q oq) by 2,6-million to 81,3-million; and active MTN Mobile Money customers increased QoQ by 1,2-million to 28,3-million.
Group service revenue increased year-on-year (YoY) by 10%. MTN South Africa service revenue increased YoY by 4,6% with an earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) margin of 38,8%; and MTN Nigeria service revenue increased YoY by 13,4% with an EBITDA margin of 53,3%.
Group president and CEO Rob Shuter comments: “MTN’s positive commercial momentum continued in the first quarter with a pleasing operational performance across the markets, led by South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. Group service revenue grew by 10% YoY in line with our medium-term guidance of double-digit service revenue growth.
“The growth in service revenue was supported by the continued expansion in voice, data and fintech revenue. Outgoing voice revenue increased by 5,9%, data revenue increased by 18,3% and fintech revenue increased by 30,6%.
“Digital revenue declined by 45,4%, impacted by the work that continues around optimising our value-added services business,” he adds. “Currency markets were favourable in the quarter, resulting in reported service revenue growth higher than constant currency rates.
“We made good progress in our work to build a digital operator, adding 2,6-million active data subscribers and 1,2-million MTN Mobile Money subscribers.”
Shuter says that MTN has launched Africa’s first instant messaging platform ‘Ayoba’ in Ivory Coast and Cameroon and plans further roll out across other markets in the second half of the year. “We will also integrate payments
into the Ayoba service as part of our broadening of the fintech business.
“We continued to invest in our network with reported capital expenditure to the end of March 2019 of R5,4 billion,” he says. “In the quarter, we led network NPS in nine of our markets.”
MTN madefurther headway in its asset realisation programme; and signed an agreement with American Tower Corporation (ATC) to buy out its shareholder loan in ATC Ghana.
“The successful listing of our e-commerce joint venture, Jumia, provides a market value for our 18,9% investment and we completed the conversion of MTN Nigeria to a public company ahead of the listing by introduction on the Nigerian Stock Exchange anticipated for May 2019,” Shuter adds.
“We remain committed to achieving our medium-term targets through delivering against all elements of our BRIGHT strategy and in particular executing our plans to access our growth curves.”
MTN South Africa recorded YoY service revenue growth of 4,6%, within its medium-term guidance range of mid-single-digit growth, buoyed by a strong performance from our wholesale business. Data and fintech revenue increased by 3,1% and 21,1% respectively, while digital and outgoing voice revenue declined by 35,7% and 4,4% respectively.
At the end of the quarter, MTN South Africa had 24,1-million prepaid users (down 4,9% QoQ), 5,9-million postpaid subscribers (up 1,2% QoQ) and 3-million IoT subscribers.
MTN South Africa’s margin on EBITDA was 38,8%. On an IAS 17 basis the margin remained unchanged YoY at 35,3%.
MTN Nigeria reported a solid quarter with service revenue increasing by 13,4% YoY, in line with its medium-term guidance of double-digit growth. This was led by a 32,4% increase in data revenue and a 12,7% increase in voice revenue. A general slowdown in economic activities during the election period impacted voice revenue growth.
Growth in data revenue was supported by an increase in smartphone penetration, improved network quality and a 9,1% increase QoQ in active data subscribers to 20,4 million.
Total subscribers increased by 3,6% QoQ to 60,3 million.
MTN Nigeria reported an EBITDA margin of 53,3%. On an IAS 17 basis the margin increased to 44,2%, up 2,4 percentage points YoY, driven by the growth in revenue and effective cost management.
The strong performance of the SEAGHA region was mainly driven by MTN Ghana, MTN Uganda and MTN Rwanda. SEAGHA’s service revenue increased by 21,2%. Data and fintech revenues increased across the region.
Subscribers increased by 3,1% to 45,0 million, supported by MTN Ghana and MTN Uganda.
Performance of the WECA region was negatively impacted by the underperformance of MTN Ivory Coast, mainly as a result of competitive pressures. This dragged WECA service revenue down by 1,4%, however, this is an
improvement from the 5,0% decline of service revenue in 2018.
In Cameroon, the operating environment remained challenging with conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions continuing, however, MTN Cameroon is tracking ahead of our recovery plan. WECA subscribers increased by 5,6% to 32,4 million, led by MTN Cameroon.
The MENA region reported that service revenue is up by 22,6% (excluding MTN Cyprus from the prior year comparison), supported by solid growth in data revenue across the region.
Subscribers increased by 0,3% to 24,1 million.
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