MTN Nigeria has published strong maiden results as a listed company, with operating margins expanding significantly on the back of good service revenue growth. The unit is MTN Group’s biggest subsidiary.

For the six months ended 30 June 2019, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation surged by 40% to N304.9-billion, with Ebitda margin growing by 10.7 percentage points to 53.8%.

Service revenue increased by 12.2%, voice revenue grew by 11.4% and data revenue jumped by 31.7% year on year. Digital revenue spiked 64.5%. Subscriber numbers increased by 3.3 million to 61.5 million.

MTN Nigeria CEO Ferdi Moolman described the half-year results as a “solid performance”, underpinned by growth in voice and data revenue. Data subscribers increased by 2.1 million to 20.7 million.

“We made significant network investments to improve network quality and expand our 4G coverage,” Moolman said in a statement. “Our recent work to revamp our data prices and accelerate our 4G network has put us in a strong competitive position to offer more value to our customers, supporting data and voice revenue growth which will ultimately strengthen our business.”

The unit was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on May as part of the settlement of a previous US$1-billion fine by Nigerian authorities.

MTN Group is expected to publish its interim results on 8 August.  — © 2019 NewsCentral Media