MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile operator, posted strong interim results for the first half of 2025, buoyed by solid commercial execution during the period.
The Johannesburg-headquartered telecommunications company today announced its financial results for the six months ended 30 June.
Group service revenue rose by 23.2% year-on-year to R105.1 billion, supported by continued growth in data and financial services.
Data revenue climbed 36.5%, while fintech revenue advanced 37.3%, reflecting ongoing momentum in scaling its Mobile Money (MoMo) platform.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), before once-off items, increased by 60.6%, lifting the EBITDA margin by 10.7 percentage points to 42.7%.
Basic earnings per share (EPS) improved significantly to 539c, a turnaround from a 409c loss in the prior year, while headline EPS (HEPS) moved to 645c, compared to a 256c loss in H1 2024.
No interim dividend was declared, consistent with the prior year.
Subscriber growth remained positive, with total users up 4.7% to 297.7 million. Active data subscribers rose 10.3% to 164.4 million, helping to drive a 29.1% increase in data traffic to 11.7 petabytes.
MoMo monthly active users grew by 1.7% to 63.2 million, and fintech transaction volumes climbed 14.5% to 11.1 billion.
MTN continued to invest in its network and platforms, with capital expenditure (excluding leases) of R20.8 billion, equating to a capex intensity ratio of 19%.
Topline boost
“The group reported a pleasing set of results, driven by strong commercial execution, disciplined capital allocation and improved macro-economic conditions,” says Ralph Mupita, MTN Group president and CEO.
“We are encouraged by the acceleration in our topline and the recovery in our profitability and free cash flow generation. We have raised our overall medium-term guidance, underlining the strength of our portfolio, as well as our commitment to accelerate the growth in our business and continue to unlock value for our shareholders and broader stakeholders.
“Our performance in H1 2025 was characterised by greater stability in inflation and foreign exchange rates in key markets.”
Mupita points out that the Nigerian naira showed greater stability against the US dollar compared with H2 2024, while the Ghanaian cedi strengthened year-to-date against the rand and US dollar.
The approval of price adjustments in Nigeria, phased in during the half and largely benefiting Q2, further boosted MTN Nigeria and the group’s service revenue.
“We deployed capex of R20.8 billion (ex-leases) to enhance the capacity, coverage and quality of our networks and platforms – with an acceleration in MTN Nigeria,” Mupita adds.
He notes this spend also reflected the strengthening of the cedi against the rand, which lifted reported capex for MTN Ghana. “This equated to a capex intensity ratio of 19%, which underpinned the commercial momentum and growth of our business.”
The CEO points out that the group delivered strong service revenue growth of 22.4% in H1 2025, with contributions from data (up 34.3%) and fintech (up 24.9%).
Advanced services fintech revenue grew 42%, raising its share of total MoMo revenue (excluding airtime advance) by 3.8 percentage points to 33.4%. “Our larger Opcos, MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana, led the growth in service revenue (up 54.1% and 39.9%, respectively).”
Competitive considerations
Meanwhile, MTN South Africa continued to navigate competitive pressures in its prepaid segment and reported service revenue growth of 2.3% in H1.
Financial efficiency measures supported profitability gains. “EBITDA margins expanded by 7.1pp to 44.2%, driving EBITDA growth of 42.3% to R46.7 billion in the period.
“This outcome was underpinned by robust topline growth and continued progress in our expense efficiency programme, which yielded savings of approximately R1.5 billion in the first half,” says Mupita.
“On the back of our strong operational performance in H1, operating free cash flow increased by 106.4% to R20.5 billion (before spectrum and licence acquisitions).”
Mupita further reports that group net-debt-to-EBITDA leverage stood at 0.5x as at 30 June 2025 (December 2024: 0.7x), “comfortably within the loan covenant threshold of 2.5x; with our holding company (Holdco) leverage remaining largely stable at 1.5x (December 2024: 1.4x).”
He says cash upstreamed from operating companies during the half was R8.2 billion, including around R3.6 billion from MTN Ghana and R1.6 billion from MTN South Africa.
“In terms of our Holdco debt mix, the proportion of non-rand debt was approximately 17% and remained firmly within our medium-term upper limit target of 40% for foreign currency denominated borrowings.”
During the reporting period, MTN raised R1.8 billion under its domestic medium-term note programme to refinance 2025 maturities. At group level, “the firm maintained healthy liquidity headroom of R39.1 billion as at 30 June 2025 – of which R15.7 billion was held in cash,” Mupita says.
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