MTN has delivered improved results for South Africa, for the six months ending June 2017, returning to profit and increasing subscriber growth.
While group total revenue increased by 6.7 percent, to R64.3 billion, reported headline earnings per share (HEPS) improved to 217 cents compared to a 271 cents headline loss per share in the comparable period. Data revenue also increased, up by 31.9 percent.
Capex meanwhile, decreased by 25.2 percent, to R10.3 billion. Capex in the first half of the year was slower than expected. According to MTN, this was impacted by limited foreign currency availability in Nigeria, some execution challenges, and the seasonality of the capex cycle.
Rob Shuter, Group president and CEO, said:
"We are seeing pleasing progress in our key growth drivers of data and digital services against headwinds of challenging macro-economic conditions and foreign exchange currency pressures. We continue to strengthen our focus on operational excellence with our six strategic pillars integrated in our new BRIGHT strategy. Our focus during the second half of the year will be to entrench our BRIGHT strategy, complete our network investment programme and build medium-term financial KPIs and targets for the BRIGHT strategy."
