Surprisingly, even as subscriber base of the group is nose-diving in both Nigeria and Ghana, the MTN group, indigenous continental largest telecoms operator has moved away from a turbulent 2016 characterised by fines and sanctions to profit regime.
MTN said on Thursday in Johannesburg that its earnings for first-half of the year had rebounded.
The group also revealed that its headline earnings came in at 3.9 billion rand ($294.40m, or 212 cents per share, in the six months to end June compared with a loss of 4.9 billion rand, or 271 cents per share, a year earlier.
Rob Shuter, former Vodafone European head, who became chief executive in March said “These numbers give us hope for the future. It is a very encouraging platform upon which to build our strategy,” the company’s shares rose nearly 3 per cent higher at early trading due to the positive results.
The results were bolstered by the absence of charges related to a $1.1bn fine imposed by Nigerian authorities last year in a long-running dispute over unregistered SIM cards.
Founded at the end of white rule in 1994, MTN’s clashes with regulators in the past few years had held back growth and threatened to tarnish its image as one of post-apartheid South Africa’s biggest commercial successes.
Shuter’s appointment is expected to put the company back on a growth path with a shift away from basic telecoms services toward the ability of its users to pay bills or watch live football matches on their phones.
MTN has more than 200 million users in more than 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East and noted last week that the loss in the first half of last year was mainly due to “non-recurring costs”, including the Nigerian fine.
Shuter, along with his new executive team that includes the new head of M&, A Stephen van Coller, and finance head, Ralph Mupita, may have other tricky issues to tackle in Nigeria and also Iran.
