South Africa’s giant mobile network operator MTN has reported an increased subscriber base by 6.9 percent to 175,997 million from December 31, 2011.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) — an investor term used to refer to the measure of a company’s cash flow based on information from the company’s profit — expanded marginally to 44.9 percent mainly due to greater efficiencies and more strict cost controls across most operations.
High levels of competition affected the market setting, in terms of regulatory requirements, and political influence in some countries in addition the low global economy.
Despite these challenges, revenue persisted in growth by 17.5 percent mainly driven by strong operational performance and competitive value schemes in Iran, Ghana and South Africa.
Group revenue increased by 17.5 percent, Nigeria’s reported revenue grew by 16.5 percent, with the average USD exchange rate weakening from US$84 to US$97, and this alongside the turned down Naira, US dollar exchange, was of great import to the company’s revenue. On a stable currency basis, the group revenue grew by 12.5 percent.
The low exchange rate against the US dollar and the rather low-key Naira to the US dollar had a positive impact on the results of the Rand growth in Nigeria, which was lower than expected, as a result of serious competition.
Local currency revenue in Iran grew by 28.3 percent and 22.4 percent in Ghana with Nigeria’s local currency growing by 4.4 percent, airtime payment and subscription revenue reduced from 66.0 percent to 63.2 percent, with data revenue increasing by 3.0 percent from 7.0 percent.
This result is reported to be due to the strong growth in data, with South Africa having contributed 46.8 percent and Nigeria 28.4 percent.
MTN is a multi-national telecommunications company started in 1994 that offers voice and data communication-products and services in Africa. It has GSM licenses in 21 countries and Internet service provider businesses across Africa.
The company is divided into MTN SEA and MTN WECA, SEA is made up of GSM licenses in South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda and Botswana with ISP (internet service provider) services in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Namibia, Kenya and Botswana.
WECAhas GSM licenses in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry and Liberia with ISP services in Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, their head office is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.
