South Africa’s MTN is considering selling off up to half of its towers networks following successful sales in other countries where it has operations. The company owns around 6,000 towers in South Africa.

The sale would be a move to improve the efficiency of its capital structure, company’s MD, Karel Pienaar told Tech Central.

"The reality is, if you look at the infrastructure on the ground, it’s not our core focus, so we don’t leverage it to the extent that perhaps we could," Pienaar said, adding that a sale would only be of the passive elements of the network. However, a sale of active components has not been ruled out in the future.

The company has already sold its towers in Ghana and Uganda.

Virgin Mobile South Africa is set to confirm the appointment of a new CEO on August 15, Friendi Group CEO Mikkel Vinter has confirmed to Comm.

In June, Virgin Mobile South Africa and Friendi Group announced an agreement whereby the two groups would merge their regional telecom operations to create a combined entity to be called Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa (VMMEA), which would be led by Vinter. At the time of the announcement it was also confirmed that Virgin Mobile South Africa CEO, Steve Bailey would be stepping down and that a “highly experienced candidate” had been identified to take over the running of the company.

Virgin Mobile South Africa has a staff compliment of around 250, with a subscriber base estimated at approximately 400,000. The MVNO currently operates at a loss.

India’s Unitech has secured a court order blocking the mobile network, Uninor from selling its assets prior to the network’s expected closure next month.

The network is a 67/33 joint venture between Telenor and Unitech, and the two companies are in dispute over its future.

The Company Law Board has upheld a challenge by Unitech against the sale of network assets. Uninor said that it would appeal the ruling.

Uninor had invited bids for network assets, which it was looking to sell before the network closure in anticipation of securing higher valuations. Telenor had said that it would make an offer if no other bidders emerged.

If Telenor did buy the network infrastructure, it was seen as a precursor to re-entering the market following the forthcoming re-sale of the cancelled GSM licenses.

Bharti Airtel saw its profit fall during its fiscal Q1 to end-June, as the operator was faced by regulatory and tax developments in India, and planned accelerated investments in India and Africa.

In a statement, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and MD of the company, said: “Telecom revenues in India have been depressed due to hyper-competition and recent regulatory and tax developments… On the African side, we are gaining market share, benefiting from the significant investments made in the last two years.”

For the quarter to June 30, 2012, the company announced net income of INR7.62 billion (US$138.6 million), down by 37.3 per cent from INR12.2 billion, on revenue of INR193.5 billion, up 14 per cent year-on-year.

Stagnant EBITDA coupled with higher depreciation and amortisation arising from enhanced capex and licence fees resulted in the lower profit.

Mobile subscriber revenue in India during the period was impacted by two changes: Airtel said that guidelines from watchdog TRAI around processing fees restricted the sale of bundled tariffs; and a tax increase led to all telecom services becoming more expensive by two per cent.

For its India and South Asia mobile business, EBIT was INR17 billion, down 18 per cent, on revenue of INR106.8 billion, up nine per cent.

Positive news in India was a 44.2 per cent increase in mobile data revenue.

According to the Economic Times, the board of Airtel is also considering the sale of up to 10 per cent of its towers unit, Bharti Infratel. No timeline has been given for a decision.

In Africa, EBIT was US$62 million, up 23 per cent from US$50 million, on revenue of US$1.1 billion, up nine per cent from US$979 million. The company noted challenges on the horizon, however, including “economic and currency headwinds” in key markets, as a result of the Eurozone crisis, lower aid and grants, rising inflation, and “political issues” in some countries.

As a result of this, it has intensified its market operations, advertising and network rollouts, as well as pursuing new growth initiatives with 3G, Airtel Money, and in the Rwandan market.
Overall it saw a 13 per cent year-on-year growth in mobile subscribers to 250 million, driven by growth of 11 per cent in India & South Asia (to 194.2 million) and 20.6 per cent in Africa (to 55.9 million).

South Africa based MTN Group has announced first-half revenues rose by 17.5 per cent to ZAR66.5 billion (US$8.1 billion), impacted by solid growth in South Africa, Iran and Ghana, as well as by foreign exchange gains. On a constant currency basis, group revenue grew 12.5 per cent year-on-year.

First half operating profit also rose, to ZAR21.641 billion, up 22 per cent year-on-year.

MTN’s subscriber base grew by 6.9 per cent year-on-year to 176 million.

Market conditions continued to be impacted by increasing levels of competition, regulatory requirements, political unrest in certain countries and the global economic slowdown. Growth in Nigeria was lower than anticipated as a result of intense competition.

Group EBITDA increased 18.2 per cent to ZAR29.8 billion. On a constant currency basis, EBITDA grew 12 per cent year-on-year. The growth in EBITDA was mainly due to strong organic growth in South Africa and Iran, which grew local currency EBITDA by 10.5 per cent and 36.4 per cent respectively.

Capex increased 77.7 per cent to ZAR10.14 billion, due mainly to an aggressive rollout programme implemented earlier in the year and the ongoing focus on critical capex investment programmes across the group’s operations.