South Africa based MTN Group on 19 July announced that it will make a loss for the six month period ended 30 June. The company says it will make its financial results public on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange News Service on Friday, 5 August 2016.
In the statement released to the JSE, MTN says it expects to “report negative basic headline earnings per share (HEPS) and basic earnings per share (EPS) for half year 2016. In the prior year comparable period MTN reported HEPS of 654 cents and EPS of 653 cents.”
The expected decline in the HEPS and EPS is primarily as a result of the regulatory fine imposed on MTN Nigeria following a resolution with the Federal Government of Nigeria on 10 June 2016. The Nigerian regulatory fine is expected to have an estimated negative impact of 474 cents on HEPS and EPS, respectively.
On 10 June MTN reached an agreement with Nigerian authorities to pay N330 billion as a final resolution of N1.04 trillion initial fine imposed on it by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).
Other factors that will contribute to MTN’s loss include; foreign exchange losses in a number of operations, losses from joint ventures and associates and hyperinflation adjustments on MTN Irancell.
Also the half year 2016 results are “further expected to be negatively impacted by the under-performance of MTN Nigeria and MTN South Africa. MTN Nigeria’s performance was impacted by the disconnection of 4.5 million subscribers in February 2016, the final batch of subscribers to be disconnected in compliance with the Nigerian Communications Commission subscriber registration requirements.
The withdrawal of regulatory services which was re-instated on 15 March 2016 with approval for promotions and price plans granted in early May 2016 also negatively impacted MTN Nigeria’s performance. MTN South Africa is expected to report a decline in the Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) margin, impacted by the marked increase in handsets sold during half year 2016.”
MTN says a further trading statement will be issued once the company obtains a reasonable degree of certainty as to the likely range within which the HEPS and EPS are expected to be finalised.
