Africa's largest cellular operator, MTN, says it “delivered a satisfactory set of results” for the first six months of the year to June.
The group grew subscribers 6.9% to 176 million compared with its base at the end of December. It says market conditions continued to be influenced by increasing levels of competition, regulatory requirements, political unrest in certain countries and the global economic slowdown.
Despite this, it grew revenue 17.5% to R66.4 billion, which was mostly driven by strong operational performance and competitive value propositions in SA, Iran and Ghana. However, growth in Nigeria was lower than expected due to “intense competition”.
Data, excluding SMS, contributed 10% to revenue, increasing 69.6% to R6.7 million. “This was mainly attributable to strong data growth in South Africa and Nigeria, which contributed 46.8% and 28.4% respectively to total group data revenue,” it says.
SMS revenue continued to show positive growth and increased its contribution marginally. This was mainly due to the continued success of SMS in Iran and SA.
MTN spent R10.1 billion in the first half of the year and 69% of the total approved capex has been committed by operations through orders placed with vendors. “Although capex increased when compared to the corresponding period for 2011, the rate of capex is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year,” MTN says in a statement.
The group's capital expenditure target of R24.7 billion for the full-year is on track, it says.
Attributable earnings per share increased 12.7% to 574.5c, while adjusted headline earnings per share gained 14.3% to 537.4c. The group declared a 321c a share dividend.
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