MTN 2009 revenues up, but profits down 4.3 per cent

South Africa’s MTN witnessed strong growth in revenues and subscribers over the course of 2009, however currency fluctuations particularly of the South African rand and Nigerian naira negatively impacted net profits. Revenues across its footprint of 21 markets in Africa and the Middle East were up 9.2 per cent on 2008, reaching ZAR 111.947 billion (US$15.011 billion) compared to ZAR 102.526 billion a year ago.

Mobile money has been rolled out in seven countries so far, with Uganda already topping 680,000 subscribers 

Net profit declined by 4.3 per cent from ZAR 15.315 billion in 2008 to ZAR 14.65 billion a year later. EBITDA was 6.7 per cent higher at ZAR 46.063 billion. Capital expenditure grew 10.6 per cent to ZAR 31.2 billion.

A better distribution network and a focus on segmented product offerings contributed to subscribers increasing by 28 per cent to 116 million. As a breakdown, 45 per cent of the total subscribers were based in the West and Central Africa region (WECA), 32 per cent in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with the remaining 23 per cent in South and East Africa (SEA).

MTN committed US$191 million to submarine cables with the group having access to cable capacity on the SAT-3/SAFE and TEAMs cables which are both currently operational, as well as future access to EASSy and EIG which are due to become operational in H2 2010 and WACS in H2 2011.

Mobile money was rolled out in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin and Yemen, with Uganda surpassing 680,000 subscribers.