MTN Nigeria Hopeful of Listing on NSE as EBITDA Earning Hits N453.1bn

MTN Nigeria Hopeful of Listing on NSE as EBITDA Earning Hits N453.1bn

Emma Okonji

MTN Group Thursday further raised hopes of Nigerians that MTN Nigeria would list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in the first half of 2019 without raising new money from investors immediately.

The hope to list on NSE was rekindled following its impressive financial results for the end of the year in December 2018, and confirms its intention to list by introduction on the NSE during the first half of 2019.

MTN Nigeria in a statement, however, said it would simplify its capital structure prior to the listing.

The Nigerian company said its subscriber base grew to 58 million users in 2018 up by six million.

According to the statement, the financial results of MTN Nigeria was impressive, as service revenue increased by 17.2 per cent; data revenue increased by 39.3 per cent; digital revenue decreased by 58.1 per cent; Fintech revenue increased by 32.7 per cent; Earnings Before Interests, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 30.8 per cent to N453.1 billion; EBITDA margin increased by 43.6 per cent while mobile subscribers increased by 6 million to 58 million.

Commenting on the results, CEO of MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman, said: “In 2018, we rebuilt the base adding another six million Nigerians to our network, thereby giving a total of 58 million people access to worldwide communication services.

“This growth was built on our sustained focus on customer centric delivery to ensure that customers get more value for their money. This included the deployment of proactive interventions to improve customer experience, together with the enhancement of network quality and coverage and the optimisation of our services portfolio.

“We also enabled an additional eight million people to access the possibilities that the internet provides, bringing our total data subscriber base to 44 million, of which 18.7 million use more than five megabytes per month.

“We are now even better positioned to ensure that everyone can access the benefits of a modern connected life. We are excited to have been given the privilege to continue playing a role in facilitating this, and are grateful to our customers, our people, our partners and our regulator for making this possible.”

Moolman further said: “We understand how access to the opportunities enabled by the internet can open up new industries even in the remotest areas of our country. Thus, we will continue to focus on delivering social innovations like mobile electricity, financial services for all, and leveraging our technology as a vehicle to enable high-impact mobile solutions in education, health and agriculture in our communities-urban and rural.”

It added that MTN planned listing would create a new telecoms asset class for investors as well as provide an opportunity for a wider group of Nigerians to participate in its investment story.

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