MTN, Africa's largest cellular operator, says while adjusted headline earnings per share will be higher for the year to December, basic headline earnings per share will be lower.
The news led its shares slightly lower to close at R124 on Friday, 1.42% or 179c down on Thursday's close.
MTN expects an increase of between 18% and 23% in adjusted headline earnings per share for the financial year. The company expects to release its results on 9 March.
A year ago, adjusted headline earnings per share were 16.6% lower at 754.3c. Stripping out the impact of currency movements, this figure improved 8.5% to 878.9c. For the year to December 2009, MTN reported revenue up 9.2% to R111.9 billion
MTN says attributable earnings per share will come in between 5% lower, or a percent better than the previous year, while basic headline earnings per share will be between 3% and 8% lower.
A year ago, attributable earnings per share were 791.4c, a decline on 2008's 821c a share, while basic headline earnings per share dropped from 836.5c to 803.2c.
The cellular giant explains the difference between basic and adjusted headline earnings per share is due to a reversal of a put option that shareholders have in its Nigerian and Afghanistan operations.
In addition, says MTN, its empowerment share ownership scheme, Zakhele, has had an impact on its financial results.
The empowerment deal was announced last year and saw MTN offer 4% of its ordinary shares to black members of the public. This translated into an effective 29% ownership of the South African operations.
About 80.9 million shares worth about R1.6 billion were sold to the public at R20 each.
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