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MTN Group Limited
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Registration number 1994/009584/06)
(Share code MTN)
(ISIN: ZAE000042164)
(MTN or the Company or the Group)
Quarterly update for the period ended 30 September 2022
MTN is a pan-African mobile operator with the strategic intent of ‘Leading digital
solutions for Africa’s progress’. We have 285 million customers in 19 markets and are
inspired by our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life.
Highlights
● Group service revenue grew by 14.3%
o Group voice revenue up by 2.7%
o Group data revenue up by 33.2%
o Group fintech revenue up by 12.9%
● Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up
by 14.7%
● Group EBITDA margin up to 45.3% (from 45.0%)
● MTN South Africa (MTN SA) service revenue up by 3.5%, with an EBITDA margin
of 39.5% (from 41.6%)
● MTN Nigeria service revenue up by 20.7%, with an EBITDA margin of 53.6%
(from 52.6%)
● Subscribers increased by 6.8% to 284.9 million
● Active data subscribers increased by 14.9% to 135.4 million
● Active Mobile Money (MoMo) customers increased by 23.3% to 63.0 million
● MoMo volume of transactions increased by 32.7% to 9.5 billion
● Medium-term guidance maintained
Unless otherwise stated, financial and non-financial growth rates are presented on a constant currency basis and are
year-on-year (YoY, 9M to September 2022 vs 9M to September 2021). To enable like-for-like comparability, all growth
rates for non-financials have been restated to exclude MTN Syria and MTN Yemen, which were deconsolidated from
25 February 2021 and 31 October 2021, respectively.
Service revenue excludes device and SIM card revenue. Data revenue is mobile and fixed access data and excludes
roaming and wholesale. Fintech includes MoMo, insurance, airtime lending and e-commerce. Active data users are a
count of all subscribers at a point in time which had a revenue generating event in the specified period (90 days) prior
to that point in time and during the past 30 days had data usage greater than or equal to 5 megabytes. MoMo users
are 30-day active users.
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Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita comments:
Continued resilience and operational execution in difficult trading conditions
“MTN Group remained resilient in the first nine months of 2022 under difficult
macroeconomic, geopolitical and regulatory conditions, delivering a solid operational
and financial performance.
Growth in data traffic and fintech transaction volumes continued to be strong,
demonstrating that structurally higher demand for data and fintech services in our
markets was sustained during this challenging period. Data traffic was up 39.7% to
8 836.4 PB and the number of transactions through our fintech ecosystem was up
32.7% to 9.5 billion, as we continued to drive digital and financial inclusion across our
markets.
The rise in energy, food prices and general inflation, as well as interest rates,
continued to put pressure on consumers and our business. Weakening local
currencies as well as the limited availability of dollars in many markets added further
pressure to operating margins as well as to our efforts to secure planned capital
expenditure.
The regulatory environment was also challenging with SIM registration regulations
affecting key markets such as Nigeria and Ghana. The work to support and accelerate
these initiatives is continuing: we are encouraged by the recovery in MTN Nigeria’s
performance following a tough Q2 2022, when the impact of NIN-SIM linkage
regulations was felt more acutely.
The introduction of new taxes and levies in some key fintech markets such as Ghana,
Benin and Cameroon – along with price reductions on person-to-person transfers and
withdrawals in Côte d’Ivoire to maintain our competitive position – slowed the
momentum of revenue growth in the short term. We remain focused on our work to
drive ecosystem expansion, which underpins our strategic targets and ambitions for
fintech given the structurally strong demand we see for financial services in our
markets.
Against this backdrop, we put in place proactive measures to mitigate the risks in our
trading environment. We are executing on initiatives, including selective price reviews,
to sustain our commercial momentum. We have also continued to invest in our
networks and platforms, with accelerated capital expenditure in key markets and
areas to support growth as well as manage supply chain and foreign currency risks.
We continually engage with our partners and suppliers to safeguard the resilience of
our networks.
More specifically, we have made good progress in the implementation of our network
resilience plan in South Africa to mitigate the impact of persistent power cuts, which
affect network availability and our operations.
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Our expense efficiency programme and working capital initiatives have also been
accelerated to cushion the effects of elevated inflation on our business and safeguard
cash flows. Importantly, we have made some key liability management interventions
to further strengthen our balance sheet resilience and financial flexibility. We are well-
positioned to navigate the current volatility and deliver on our medium-term growth
ambitions.
Solid financial and operational performance in Q3 2022
Overall service revenue was delivered in line with our medium-term targets and grew
by 14.3%. MTN Group sustained positive operating leverage in the period with EBITDA
up by 14.7%, representing an improvement in the EBITDA margin of 0.3 percentage
points (pp) to 45.3% that was supported by disciplined cost control. Our expense
efficiency programme delivered R2.8 billion of savings in the year-to-date (YTD).
Growth in the period was supported by solid contributions from our larger operations
where data underpinned service revenue growth. MTN SA service revenue grew by
3.5%, impacted by loadshedding and concessions to support the Cell C
recapitalisation. MTN Nigeria’s solid commercial momentum underpinned service
revenue growth of 20.7%, with an acceleration in Q3 2022 while our regions sustained
top line growth in double-digits.
We connected more people to our network, with overall subscriber numbers up by 6.8%
YoY to 284.9 million. This was despite the increase in technical churn in MTN Nigeria
brought about by new SIM registration regulations. That impact was offset by the
acceleration in gross connections as we ramped up capacity to manage SIM
registration and NIN enrolment. We anticipate a moderation in churn in Q4, and
recovery in MTN Nigeria’s subscriber base in line with our expectations for 2022.
In MTN Ghana we also made solid progress and continued to work on re-registering
our customers in line with SIM regulations. We are deploying resources and
collaborating with regulators in Ghana to accelerate re-registration and ensure a
speedy completion of the exercise.
Structurally higher demand for data and fintech services
Work to drive an industry-leading connectivity business progressed well and we
recorded voice revenue growth of 2.7%. The strong data revenue growth of 33.2%
delivered in the period was underpinned by a 14.9% YoY increase in active data users
and robust data traffic growth of 39.7%.
We are encouraged that demand for data is being sustained at structurally higher
levels. To support this, we deployed R23.8 billion of Capex in the period to sustain our
second-to-none networks and technology platforms, prioritising the coverage and
capacity of our 4G networks and the rollout of 5G sites. In Nigeria we rolled out 218
5G sites and in SA 483 5G sites, bringing the total 5G sites rolled out for the Group to
the end of Q3 to 824 sites.
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In our platforms, fintech revenue rose by 12.9% YoY with MoMo active monthly users
up by 23.3% YoY and the volume of transactions processed through our platform up
by 32.7% in Q3 2022 YoY to 9.5 billion transactions.
We are encouraged by the overall strength of our fintech ecosystem with solid
momentum in the underlying KPIs across our e-commerce & payments, banktech,
remittances and joint venture (JV) insurtech verticals, as well as the build out of
agents, merchants and MoMo app adoption by our subscribers.
MoMo PSB operations in Nigeria continued to gain traction, with strong growth in the
registered wallet base which demonstrated good underlying momentum. In Q3 2022,
we focused on further strengthening IT systems and interface with the Nigeria Inter-
Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). The primary focus for MoMo PSB remains to grow
the user base and scale basic services, targeting the sizeable unbanked segment in
Nigeria. We will then evolve into more advanced services over time, in line with
Ambition 2025.
Strong balance sheet and liquidity positions
Group leverage of 0.5x (versus 0.4x at 30 June 2022) remained comfortably within
covenant limits. Our holding company (Holdco) leverage of 0.8x at 30 September 2022
was slightly improved against the 30 June 2022 level and well within our medium-term
target. We maintained a strong liquidity position, with headroom of R59.2 billion
(R22.4 billion in cash, and R36.8 billion in committed undrawn facilities) at
30 September 2022.
We executed on our liability management plans in September 2022, successfully
completing a cash tender offer to early-settle US$300 million in Eurobond notes with
a 2024 maturity date. We also completed an upsized SA bond auction of R2.6 billion,
which further advanced our priority to optimise the currency mix of our debt and
mitigate refinance risk by smoothing and lengthening our debt maturity profile.
In support of this, we upstreamed dividends and management fees amounting to
R2.1 billion from our operating companies in Q3 2022, bringing the YTD total to
R11.5 billion at 30 September 2022. While no cash was upstreamed from Nigeria
during Q3, we received R1.5 billion of cash from MTN Nigeria post the period-end –
bringing the YTD total cash upstreamed from Nigeria to R6.0 billion.
Portfolio transformation update
As part of an orderly exit of the Middle East, in August 2022 we announced that we
had received a binding offer for our shares in MTN Afghanistan. In this regard, MTN
Dubai Limited and M1 New Ventures Limited (M1) entered into agreements in which
M1 will acquire all the issued shares in MTN Afghanistan for a gross consideration of
US$35 million. The transaction is subject to various conditions precedent including the
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conclusion of a transition agreement and regulatory approvals. The 49% non-
controlling minority financial investment in Irancell continues to be managed for value
within the MTN portfolio.
On 19 October 2022, we updated the market that our discussions in South Africa had
terminated regarding a proposed acquisition of the entire share capital of Telkom for
shares or cash and shares. Discussions were terminated as we were unable to reach
agreement to mutual satisfaction with the counterparty on the way forward.
MTN SA remains well positioned to capture growth in the consumer, enterprise and
wholesale markets and deliver on its medium-term guidance.
Group medium-term guidance maintained
As we look ahead, we expect macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility to present
headwinds as we navigate the final quarter of 2022. As MTN Group, we are
encouraged by the continued resilience of our business. We remain focused on
executing on Ambition 2025, driving accelerated growth, implementing measures to
contain inflationary pressures in our markets, further deleveraging the Holdco
balance sheet and unlocking value for our stakeholders. Our Capex guidance for 2022
is unchanged at R35.3 billion and we maintain Group medium-term guidance.
The Group’s results and segmental report are presented in line with the Group’s operational structure. The Group’s
underlying operations are clustered as follows: South Africa (SA), Nigeria, the Southern and East Africa (SEA) region,
the West and Central Africa (WECA) region and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and their respective
underlying operations.
The SEA region includes Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Botswana (joint venture-equity accounted), eSwatini
(joint venture-equity accounted) and Business Group. The WECA region includes Ghana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire,
Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, Liberia, Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau. The MENA region includes Iran (joint venture-
equity accounted), Sudan and Afghanistan.
Although Iran, Botswana and eSwatini form part of their respective regions geographically and operationally, they are
excluded from their respective regional results because they are equity accounted for by the Group.
MTN Syria results have been disclosed up to February for 2021; as a result of loss of control effective February 2021,
following MTN Syria being placed under judicial guardianship. MTN Yemen results have been disclosed up to end of
October 2021, as a result of MTN’s decision to exit the operation .
Certain information presented in this quarterly update constitutes pro forma financial information. The responsibility
for preparing and presenting the pro forma financial information and for the completeness and accuracy of the pro
forma financial information is that of the directors of MTN. This is presented for illustrative purposes only. Because of
its nature, the pro forma financial information may not fairly present MTN’s financial position, changes in equity, and
results of operations or cash flows. It has not been audited or reviewed or otherwise reported on by our external joint
auditors. The financial information on which this quarterly update is based, including constant currency information,
has not been reviewed and reported on by MTN’s external auditors. Constant currency information has been presented
to remove the impact of movement in currency rates on the Group’s results and has been calculated by translating the
prior financial reporting period’s results at the current period’s average rates. The measurement has been performed
for each of the Group’s currencies, materially being that of the US dollar and Nigerian naira. The constant currency
growth percentage has been calculated based on the prior period constant currency results compared to the current
year results. In addition, in respect of MTN Irancell, MTN Sudan and MTN South Sudan the constant currency
information has been prepared excluding the impact of hyperinflation. The economies of Sudan, South Sudan and Iran
were assessed to be hyperinflationary for the period under review and hyperinflation accounting was applied.
This quarterly update may contain forward-looking information. Any forecast information on which the quarterly
update may be based has not been reviewed or reported on by the Group’s external auditors.
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Managing in an elevated inflation environment
Global macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility spurred accelerated inflation across
our markets in the period. The blended inflation rate in MTN markets rose to 15.4%
by end-September 2022, compared to 9.1% at the start of the year. To moderate the
expected impacts on our business, we took deliberate actions, which we articulated
with our interim 2022 results.
To safeguard our commercial operations, we accelerated our customer value
management (CVM) efforts with a focus on personalised offers to customers. We are
streamlining promotions and rationalising our offerings where necessary to help
manage churn and optimise effective pricing.
We continue to selectively review our pricing, especially in markets where inflation is
high. We are also in discussions with regulators in markets such as South Africa,
Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Côte d’Ivoire regarding market pricing where
appropriate, in order to support continued investment and the industry’s long-term
sustainability. This is in addition to hyperinflation markets such as South Sudan and
Sudan, where we engage with regulators on ongoing price reviews.
In terms of supply chain, we continued to hone our comprehensive risk mitigation
strategies that have been in place for many years, and which position us well to
withstand the disruptions. Leveraging our scale, we work with partners for advance
purchase orders, to safeguard the capacity, resilience and rolling coverage for critical
spares for our networks and operations. We are driving for more local currency
pricing for IT and network expenditure.
From a network perspective, we are engaged with our towerco partners in markets
such as Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, SA, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Zambia
to renegotiate some tower agreements. Our focus is on ensuring terms that will
cushion the business from inflationary and foreign currency volatility pressures, as
well as optimise arrangements around power to promote delivery of MTN net zero
commitment.
In South Africa, we are well-progressed in executing the power resilience plan to
combat the effects of persistent power cuts. We have implemented phases 1 and 2 of
the three-phase plan and anticipate completing phase 3 by the end of Q2 2023.
The momentum in our financial resilience initiatives is firmly entrenched and we are
accelerating our expense efficiency programme with a continued focus on savings in
our network and sales & distribution costs. In Q3 we realised efficiencies of
R930 million across the Group, bringing the YTD total to R2.8 billion. The ratio of total
costs to revenue was 54.8%, slightly better than the 55.0% of a year prior.
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In terms of our working capital optimisation initiatives, we concluded the agreement
to sell part of MTN SA’s receivables book to a commercial bank in October 2022,
releasing R1 billion. We are continuing to explore other avenues to release cash.
These include supply chain financing in South Africa and other markets.
In September 2022 we executed on liability management of our 2024 maturity
Eurobonds and early-settled US$300 million in non-rand debt from existing US dollar
cash balances. We raised R2.6 billion of long-term rand-denominated bonds in a SA
debt capital markets bond auction, within or tighter than price guidance. We were
also pleased to have completed the update of our DMTN programme for the latest
JSE debt-listing requirements and regulatory updates; and increased the programme
size to R35 billion, from R20 billion.
These interventions will help to smooth and lengthen our debt maturity profile, thus
mitigating refinancing risk and improve our ratio of non-rand to rand-denominated
debt. As at 30 September 2022, the Holdco ratio of non-rand to rand-denominated
debt improved to 37:63 (June 2022: 42:58).
Our balance sheet is thus resilient, with a healthy liquidity position, providing us with
the flexibility to continue executing on our medium-term strategy as well as withstand
shocks and enable us to take advantage of opportunities that may arise. We remain
guided by our disciplined capital allocation framework, which provides the guardrails
to our growth and value creation ambitions.
Operational review
MTN SA
MTN SA recorded a strong performance for the nine months to September 2022.
Service revenue grew by 3.5% YoY, with a resilient Q3 growth rate of 2.2% YoY given
the pressures in its trading environment and loadshedding experienced in the period.
The performance was underpinned mainly by growth in data of 13.5%, on the back of
increased data traffic.
This result was delivered against a backdrop of high inflation, rising interest rates,
unemployment, as well as unprecedented levels of loadshedding, which negatively
impacted the overall network availability and some business functions. Despite this
tough environment, in which inflation rose to 7.5% by September 2022 (from 5.7% in
January 2022), MTN SA’s focus on commercial and operational execution, helped to
drive further market share gains which underpinned a solid overall performance.
Service revenue in the prepaid consumer business unit (CBU) grew by 0.4%, with
postpaid CBU increasing by 4.2%. The enterprise business unit (EBU) continues to
deliver strong double-digit growth of 19.7%. Furthermore, the wholesale business
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delivered 0.7% growth despite revenue concessions on the Cell C national roaming
agreement geared to enabling the conclusion of their recapitalisation.
In the nine months to September 2022, MTN SA grew its subscriber base by over
800 000 to 35.9 million, an increase of 8.1% YoY. This was driven by higher gross
additions and improved customer value proposition fostering customer retention.
Demand for integrated voice and data-centric plans led to postpaid subscriber
numbers expanding by 10.4% to 8.0 million. Prepaid subscribers increased by 7.5% to
27.9 million.
Data continued to lead the business, contributing 45.4% to MTN SA’s total service
revenue. Mobile data revenue grew by 13.3% YoY, with growth of 11.2% YoY for Q3,
on the back of a 36.4% increase in data traffic and a 11.7% increase in active data
users to 18.8 million.
MTN SA continued the work to make data more accessible and affordable, reducing
the effective data tariff by 23.4% YoY. This has helped to stimulate higher usage. An
active prepaid data subscriber now consumes an average of 2.7GB a month, up 9.0%
YoY. An active postpaid data subscriber uses nearly 13.5GB per month, an increase
of 20.9%.
Consumer postpaid service revenue increased by 4.2% YoY and by 2.6% for Q3 YoY,
on an increased uptake in data-oriented packages. This growth was delivered despite
deteriorating consumer spending and credit conditions in the market.
As anticipated, the consumer prepaid business remained strained, with service
revenue growth of 0.4% YoY and -1.2% for Q3 YoY as consumers felt the impact of
economic pressure and job losses. This was further exacerbated by persistent
loadshedding, which had a significant impact on voice.
In our ‘own the home’ strategy , MTN SA remains focused on accelerating growth.
This is underpinned by MTN SA’s best network, which currently leverages 4G fixed
LTE, Tarana Air Fibre, 5G FWA and FTTH. Acceleration in this segment over the
medium term will be driven by leveraging both FWA and FTTH technologies. MTN SA
will, thus, continue to invest in both technologies to advance its ‘own the home’ plans,
while remaining committed to deliver on its medium-term guidance.
The enterprise business recorded an increase in service revenue of 19.7% YoY and
17.8% for Q3 YoY, largely supported by robust growth in the core mobile business
from strong data product propositions. The growth in the enterprise business was
driven by a recovery in connectivity.
Wholesale revenue increased by 0.7%, thanks to the national roaming deals with
Cell C and Telkom. In September 2022, Cell C concluded its recapitalisation,
significantly improving its financial position. Based on this, MTN SA assessed that it
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is now appropriate to recognise revenue for national roaming services on an accrual
basis of accounting. Revenue from Cell C related to BTS rental remains on a cash
basis of accounting.
The national roaming agreement with Telkom, aligned with the Group’s work to
monetise investments in networks, took effect on 1 November 2021. Off a low base,
it gained traction in the nine months to 30 September 2022, increasing its
contribution to revenue and scaling steadily.
The performance of the Fintech business was encouraging, with approximately
5.4 million registered MoMo users and 1.1 million monthly active users by
30 September 2022, representing growth of 136%. We continue to grow the business
by providing a mix of innovative and relevant digital and financial solutions including
payments at 27 000 retail points, utilities payments, gaming as well as digital
services. Furthermore, there has been an increase in app adoption resulting in
2.5 million downloads in the nine months to September 2022.
In the tough macro environment, MTN SA sustained growth of 0.7% in EBITDA
demonstrating its resilience, supported by commercial execution and continuous cost
efficiencies. The EBITDA margin contracted by 1.4pp to 40.2%, which includes the
once-off gain on disposal of SA towers.
Excluding the gain, the EBITDA margin would have been 39.5% (down 2.1pp). This is
within the medium-term guidance and achieved against the continued impact of
higher cost of sales relating to increased device sales during the period, as well as
increased operating expenditure (Opex) associated with network resilience
interventions.
In response to the socio-economic challenges in South Africa, MTN SA adopted the
theme ‘Empowering communities to drive economic delivery and job creation’. The
flagship of the campaign was the Naga Lipudi Career, Science and Resource Centre.
Through this campaign, MTN SA upskilled young people by offering career guidance
on jobs that are future fit and driving the awareness and uptake of the MTN Online
School portal. The campaign concluded with the handing over of a multi-media centre
to the Mogale City beneficiaries.
The macroeconomic pressures experienced in Q3 – including loadshedding, inflation,
deteriorating exchange rates and rising interest rates – are expected to continue
straining consumer spending, thus impacting performance in Q4.
Restrictions on electricity supply are anticipated to remain challenging, affecting
MTN SA’s Q4 service revenue outlook. To mitigate against these negative impacts
and to ensure the quality of customer connectivity, MTN SA is well-progressed in
rolling out a comprehensive network resilience plan, which includes additional
batteries, generators and enhanced security at sites.
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MTN SA is focused on accelerating the expansion in its high-growth business areas
and executing on its overall expense efficiency programme to deliver strong EBITDA
and cash flow growth. The Opco has also successfully concluded an agreement to
sell part of its receivables book to a commercial bank in October 2022, releasing
R1 billion.
MTN Nigeria
MTN Nigeria published its Q3 2022 results on 28 October 2022, delivering a strong
overall performance in a challenging operating environment.
Service revenue grew in line with medium-term guidance of at least 20%. This was on
the back of a strong recovery in Q3 2022, as the business continued to manage the
impact of the NCC’s directive on NIN-SIM registration on the base. Growth was broad-
based across key revenue lines.
Voice revenue grew by 4.5%, maintaining a steady recovery as more customers were
reactivated, and gross connections continued to ramp up. This was supported by CVM
initiatives, which managed churn and drove increased usage from the existing base.
Data revenue rose by 50.1% on increased subscribers and data usage. This was
sustained by an aggressive 4G network expansion and enhanced quality and capacity
of the network. Both supported rising data traffic as the drive to convert existing
subscribers on the 3G network to 4G, as well as smartphone penetration, continued.
As a result, data traffic grew by 70.6% YoY, with 4G accounting for 78.6% of overall
traffic, while data usage (MB per user) rose by 52.2%. In addition, the number of
smartphones on the network continued to increase, with the addition of about
4.4 million in the nine months, bringing smartphone penetration to 52.0%.
In terms of fixed broadband penetration, MTN Nigeria added over 430 000 users,
bringing the user base to 1.1 million. The business continued to advance its home
broadband strategy with the commercial launch of the 5G network, providing
coverage in key cities in the six geopolitical regions. Consequently, MTN Nigeria
deployed 5G routers delivering an average download speed of 470 megabits per
second and creating experiences that position MTN Nigeria as the broadband service
provider of choice.
Fintech revenue increased by 21.6%, and growth was broad-based across Xtratime
(airtime lending product, up 20.6%) and core fintech services (wallet and agency
business, up 232.0%). Our fintech active users rose by 68.7% YoY to 11.2 million, of
which 1.8 million represent active MoMo wallets (down 29.4% in Q3 2022). However,
registered MoMo wallets increased by more than two times to 9.9 million in Q3 2022,
demonstrating the underlying momentum in the ecosystem.
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In addition, we expanded our Mobile Money (MoMo) agent network by adding over
21k active agents in Q3 2022, bringing the total number to approximately 188k. The
agent network continued to play a pivotal role in our MoMo ecosystem and helped to
drive growth in the total volume of transactions by 112.2% YoY.
During Q3 2022, MTN Nigeria moderated commercial activities and prioritised the
enhancement of control systems. This resulted in short-term pressure on our active
base in Q3 2022 as the NIBSS interface was temporarily suspended. More sustainable
growth in active wallets should resume once NIBSS is reopened and MTN Nigeria
drives initiatives to grow its base. It is anticipated that NIBBS will be reopened in Q4.
In addition, MTN Nigeria expanded its MoMo agent network by adding over 21 000
active agents in Q3 2022, bringing the total number to approximately 188 000. The
agent network continued to play a pivotal role in the MoMo ecosystem and helped to
drive growth in the total volume of transactions by 112.2% YoY.
Overall, MoMo PSB continued to make steady progress in its operations. The current
focus is to grow the user base and scale basic services, targeting the sizable
unbanked segment in the country. Over time, MoMo PSB will leverage its market-
leading distribution to evolve the mix towards more advanced services across fintech
verticals, in line with Ambition 2025.
Digital revenue grew by 32.2% as penetration of our digital products continued to
deepen, driven by user journey optimisation and increased usage from our active
base. Rich Media, Mobile Advertising and Content VAS drove revenue growth.
The active user base rose by 66.4% YoY to 9.6 million, led by instant messaging
platform ayoba, with approximately 5.1 million active users, up 75.5%. MTN Nigeria
continued to expand the features of ayoba beyond messaging to include gaming,
music and other entertainment benefits with rich local content. This helped to drive a
higher active user base.
Revenue from the enterprise business was up by 49.5%, underpinned by the
onboarding of new customers across segments and the uptake of enhanced services.
The business is actively pursuing its goal of accelerating the uptake of enterprise
platforms (internet of things and cloud), creating additional value for customers and
enabling them to innovate while remaining profitable.
MTN Nigeria made good progress with its expense efficiency programme, realising
cost savings resulting from disciplined capital allocation. The cost of sales increased
by 23.8% off a low base in the prior year, which was depressed by the suspension of
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new SIM sales and activations by the regulator and lower device purchases during
that period, and the impact of growing gross connections in the current year.
Opex increased by 15.1% on higher lease rental costs impacted by naira depreciation,
higher dollar CPI, the acceleration in site rollout and rising energy costs. However,
the impact of the escalation of diesel prices in Nigeria is mitigated in most of MTN
Nigeria’s tower contracts, resulting in a negative EBITDA margin impact of about
0.4pp.
Overall, total expenses increased by 18.1%, below the service revenue growth rate
and inflation rate in Nigeria. Consequently, MTN Nigeria recorded EBITDA growth of
23.1% and EBITDA margin expansion by 1.0pp to 53.6%, supported by improved
operating leverage.
Southern and East Africa (SEA)
The SEA region delivered service revenue growth of 10.9% YoY with solid growth of
12.7% for Q3 2022 YoY. This was supported by sustained top-line growth in most
markets notwithstanding the challenging trading conditions, where the blended
inflation in SEA reached 1.3% in September 2022, compared to 0.6% at the start of
the year. The region continued to deliver strong growth in data revenue, up 24.6%,
and fintech revenue, which grew by 26.8%. The SEA region increased subscriber
numbers by 3.3% YoY to 35.9 million.
MTN Uganda, which published Q3 2022 on 1 November 2022, recorded an improved
performance, with service revenue up by 11.6% YoY and a robust performance in Q3
2022 with growth of 14.7%. The performance was driven by a healthy increase in the
subscriber base by 9.2% YoY, an improvement in the momentum of voice revenue
which was down 2.2%, but showed a pleasing recovery in Q3 2022, up 3.3% YoY (vs a
decline of 4.9% in Q2).
Growth in MTN Uganda was also boosted by sustained double-digit revenue growth
in both data revenue (up 29.8%), supported by higher active data user and traffic, and
fintech (up 23.4%), driven by growth in fintech subscribers and transaction activity.
MTN Uganda’s EBITDA margin, which was 0.9pp lower at 50.8%, remained within
target and was impacted by higher inflation and network costs related to increased
site rollout.
MTN Rwanda released its Q3 2022 results on 1 November 2022 and grew service
revenue by 21.4%, driven by growth across the key revenue segments, with voice
revenue up by 5.6%, data revenue up by 15.9% and fintech revenue 52.9% higher. MTN
Rwanda reported an EBITDA margin of 48.8%, down 1.5pp. This was impacted mainly
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by higher cost of sales, due to the higher uptake of 4G, as well as an increase in the
charge paid into the Community Based Health Insurance from 2.5% to 3.0%.
Overall, the SEA portfolio reported a 0.6pp decrease in the blended EBITDA margin
to 45.5% for the nine months to 30 September 2022 due to higher inflation in the
markets and increased network costs due to site roll outs.
The performance of our associate investment in eSwatini reflected the continued
pressure on voice and data in a tough economic environment, amid increased
competition and pressure on disposable incomes. The operation is driving aggressive
data offers to grow market share. Pleasingly, MTN eSwatini is delivering a strong
fintech performance, supported by basic services and a good uptake in MoMo loans
and MoMo pay services.
West and Central Africa (WECA)
The WECA region delivered double-digit service revenue growth of 12.8% YoY and
9.7% for Q3 2022 YoY despite intense competition and challenging trading
conditions, where blended inflation rose to 16.5% from 8.0% (excluding Ghana,
inflation has been stable at 5.1%) at the start of the year.
Data revenue growth of 29.9% was a key driver of overall performance while fintech
revenue, which was up by 5.6%, remained resilient despite the pressure of regulatory
taxes and aggressive pricing from competitors in key markets. The region’s
performance benefited from an 8.8% increase in the subscriber base to 72.0 million
and improved cost efficiencies.
MTN Ghana published its Q3 2022 results on 31 October 2022. The Opco maintained
solid growth momentum in the quarter in a challenging macroeconomic and
operating environment, characterised by rising inflation, a weaker exchange rate and
the increasing cost of fuel and utilities.
Service revenue grew by 28.3% YoY and 26.1% for Q3 2022 YoY, with voice up 22.8%
due to the expansion of its subscriber base and various CVM initiatives; while data
was up by 45.2%, supported by an increase in active data users and usage.
The growth in fintech revenue of 10.4% was slower due to the implementation of the
e-levy in May 2022 and the Opco’s 25% reduction in person-to-person (P2P)
transaction fees. Encouragingly, there was some resilience in the active MoMo user
base (up 16.3% YoY), cash-out services (up 15.9%) and advanced service offerings
(up 17.7% YoY).
EBITDA increased by 37.2% YoY with a corresponding margin accretion of 3.8pp to
58.3%, aided by the expense efficiency initiatives and the strong top-line growth.
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MTN Côte d’Ivoire came under pressure, with service revenue down by 1.3% YoY and
5.3% for Q3 2022 YoY. This was largely a result of the 35.0% decline in fintech revenue
amid intensified competition in the market since H2 2021. The sustained robust
performance of data, through accelerated data penetration and usage, alleviated the
impact of the decline in fintech revenue on service revenue.
In Q4 2021, MTN Côte d’Ivoire implemented zero-rating of P2P transactions as well
as price reductions for withdrawals in response to competitive pressures and to
accelerate user and usage growth. Since then, this has aided to drive fintech user
growth of 23.6% YoY and transaction volume by 113.0%. As a result of the solid user
and usage growth, and as the effects of price reductions will be lapped in the fourth
quarter, we anticipate that fintech revenue should start returning to growth by the
end of Q4 2022, as we hurdle the price cuts implemented towards the tail end of Q3
2021.
Encouragingly, the Opco maintained its competitive advantage, growing market
share. The EBITDA margin declined by 0.7pp to 34.8%, impacted by the pressure on
in the topline, although mitigated by good cost containment.
MTN Cameroon sustained its market leadership in a competitive and challenging
environment, recording service revenue growth of 9.2% YoY and 6.1% for Q3 2022
YoY. This result was supported by growth in active data users owing to CVM initiatives
and education campaigns reflecting growth in data revenue, up 23.1%. Fintech
revenue grew by 13.0% as advanced services continued to grow and digital revenue
was up by 30.6% due to an increase in rich media services. The EBITDA margin
declined by 1.8pp to 34.5%, impacted by provisions for taxes on MoMo transfers and
withdrawals. The quarterly trajectory in margin is improving, underpinned by topline
growth and initiatives to optimise costs.
WECA delivered a blended EBITDA margin of 41.6%, up by 1.8pp, largely because of
MTN Ghana’s strong performance and benefiting from strict cost control measures.
Excluding MTN Ghana, the WECA markets grew service revenue by 4.6% and reported
a 1.3pp decline in EBITDA margin to 30.7%, reflecting the pressure in MTN Côte
d’Ivoire and MTN Cameroon.
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
The MENA region delivered a strong performance with service revenue growth of
63.3% YoY and 54.3% in Q3 2022 YoY (excluding MTN Irancell) under persistently
challenging trading conditions. Growth in voice revenue (up by 41.1%) and the
continued expansion in active data users leading to strong data revenue (up by
103.3%) supported the region’s overall performance. The total number of subscribers
(excluding MTN Irancell) was 14.9 million.
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MTN Sudan increased service revenue by 159.0%, underpinned by growth in voice (up
by 118.8%) and data (up by 226.7%) revenue on the back of tariff increases. The
EBITDA margin declined by 0.2pp to 50.8%, impacted by inflationary pressure on
costs but mitigated by strong growth in revenue.
MENA reported a blended EBITDA margin of 41.9%, up by 3.1pp, boosted by the
strong revenue growth.
MTN Irancell, our equity-accounted JV, delivered solid results through strong
commercial and operational execution. Service revenue grew by 35.1%, supported by
increased data revenue. The EBITDA margin expanded by 4.2pp to 43.5%, driven by
revenue growth and expense efficiencies.
The restrictions on international traffic related to the current protests in Iran are
having some impact on the availability of services to customers and may impact the
performance of the business in Q4 2022. The MTN Group digital human rights policy
has been shared with Irancell, in line with how we engage where MTN is a minority
shareholder.
The Iran Internet Group’s (IIG) Group's ride-hailing app, Snapp, remained the market
leader, ranking among the top ride-hailing apps globally with over 3.4 million daily
rides. Snapp Box is the leading last-mile delivery network in the country. Market-
leading food delivery app Snappfood orders grew by 44% YoY to almost 240K daily
orders. Snapp Market orders grew by 45% YoY and it remains the leading
supermarket delivery app in the country.
Building the largest and most valuable fintech platform
We are scaling and accelerating our fintech ecosystem across our markets, driving
recurring usage with a focus on new product launches to grow advanced services.
Overall fintech service revenue grew by 12.9% YoY and 11.5% in Q3 2022 YoY.
In Q3 2022, we recorded a 32.7% increase in transaction volumes to 9.5 billion
transactions, with transaction value up by 12.1% to US$166.7 billion.
While Ghana was impacted by the introduction of the e-levy and the 25% reduction in
P2P fees, we are encouraged by the recovery in trend, particularly in
September 2022, which is evidence of the fundamental resilience of the fintech
business in Ghana.
In MTN Uganda, our second largest MoMo market by service revenue, continued to
see strong ecosystem growth where total transaction volume and value increased by
30.7% and 46.8% respectively. We are focused on accelerating advanced services in
in the business over the medium-term. We are pleased with the resilience and
continued growth in both activity levels and revenue in the business as this
performance was delivered despite a new entrant to the market.
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In Côte d’Ivoire, the decline in service revenue was impacted by intense competition
which saw us reduce P2P and withdrawals pricing. We are encouraged by notable
user growth for the nine months to 30 September 2022 and the ongoing recovery in
the ecosystem. Fintech users increased by 23.6% and transaction volume by 113.0%
in the market in Q3 2022 YoY, and we anticipate that fintech service revenue should
return to positive growth in the next couple of quarters.
Excluding MTN Ghana and MTN Côte d'Ivoire, impacted by the aforementioned items,
fintech revenue grew 21.4% YoY.
For MTN Nigeria, we noted the short-term pressure on active wallets as the business
proactively moderated commercial activity in Q3 2022 to enhance control systems.
This will enable MoMo PSB to reopen the NIBSS interfaces, expected in Q4, and
expand the transaction channels to customers. Encouragingly, the number of
registered wallets more than doubled to 9.9 million, which makes us optimistic about
the underlying momentum in the ecosystem in that market.
The overall momentum in our fintech business remains robust, with strong growth in
our payments and e-commerce ecosystem, as we leveraged our strong distribution
footprint. The number of active merchants accepting MoMo payments increased by
64.4% to over 1.0 million and the total value of MoMo merchant payments rose by
64.9% to US$10.8 billion.
In BankTech, we facilitated a total loan value of US$1.0 billion, a 57.9% YoY increase,
as we capitalised on our scaled mobile wallet business and customer footprint.
The total value of remittances grew by 8.8% YoY to US$1.7 billion in Q3 2022 (up
42.6% YoY, excluding Ghana). The result was underpinned by strong growth in
international remittances where we have increased the number of outbound
corridors to 87 (up 81.0%) and inbound partnerships to 449 (up 64.0%).
Our InsurTech platform with our JV aYo, closed the nine-month period with 18.0
million registered aYo policies, reflecting an increase of 21.6% YoY. The number of
active policies declined by 35.3% YoY due to a shift in our approach to focus on a
higher average revenue per policy and new revenue streams, particularly in Uganda
and Zambia, resulting in the termination of free policies.
Active policy growth was also impacted by platform migration and integration
challenges as we shifted to a proprietary infrastructure. In the year ahead, we
anticipate a return to growth in active paid policies with higher average revenue per
policy.
In terms of partnerships, our JV with Sanlam reached a significant milestone when it
reached closing on 1 November 2022, following the fulfilment of all conditions
precedent as well as competition and regulatory approvals across the markets in
which we operate.
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As reported with our H1 2022 results, we commenced on a bespoke basis,
engagement with select potential strategic investors into the Group fintech business.
The process has progressed well, and we are in the second phase of engagements
towards binding offers for minority investment. We anticipate being in a position to
update the market in early Q1 2023 on the progress made. We remain focused on
ensuring that any strategic minority investment delivers commercial value that
accelerates the growth of our fintech platform and reveals inherent value in the
business.
Scaling our FibreCo ambitions
MTN GlobalConnect (MTN GC) is progressing well on its FibreCo ambitions as it scales
its Fixed Connectivity and Wholesale Mobility services across the African continent.
MTN GC continues to expand its footprint and now has subsidiaries in five African
countries.
For the nine-month period ending 30 September 2022, MTN GC signed fixed external
infrastructure deals to the value of US$28.2 million. External revenue grew by 16.9%
YoY to US$247.9 million, with Mobility revenue up by 18.3%.
Building scale infrastructure assets across Africa remained a key priority as MTN GC
expanded terrestrial fibre into its markets. We rolled out approximately 5 000 km of
new fibre in Q3 2022, bringing our inventory of proprietary fibre to a total of over
105 000 km at 30 September 2022. In Zambia, MTN GC rolled out nationwide fibre
connecting Zambia with six neighbouring countries.
MTN GC’s Wholesale Mobility platforms continued to scale at pace during Q3 2022.
International voice revenue grew 25.7% YoY on the back of growth in voice minutes
by 12.1% to 1 billion in the quarter. Messaging revenue was up 17.6%, driven by a
51.5% increase in SMSes processed on our platform to 820 million. We also launched
over 200 roaming services during the quarter including Voice over LTE between MTN
SA and AT&T in the US, with roaming traffic levels now above pre-pandemic levels.
With a focus on enhancing global customer experience, MTN GC launched Customer
Success Centres in Ghana and Kenya in October 2022, insourcing its network
operations centre and establishing a new service operations centre. This is the first
step of MTN GC’s phased investment, which forms part of expansive plans for the
region, in-housing and onshoring its support operations. The centres mark a key
milestone in the expansion of MTN GC’s business on the African continent.
Update on regulatory and legal considerations
SIM registration in Nigeria
As updated in its Q3 2022 release on 28 October 2022, MTN Nigeria continued to
implement the interventions put in place to moderate the impact of the NIN-SIM
linkage regulation on revenue and the anticipated increase in churn during Q3 2022.
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At 30 September 2022, about 10.5 million of those initially restricted from making
outgoing calls submitted their NINs for verification, of which 3.8 million were
reactivated.
MTN Nigeria continued to ramp up gross connections and roll out NIN recovery offers
to offset the impact of churn. As a result, the average daily gross connection was
48.1% above the pre-directive level, partly driven by the cohort of subscribers who
were initially restricted. Combined with increased usage from the existing base, these
supported an acceleration in the service revenue growth recovery and mitigated the
impact of churn on the base.
As MTN Nigeria continues to engage its affected subscribers, drive NIN enrolment for
subscribers who do not yet have a NIN and support NIMC in addressing capacity
challenges, we believe that mitigating actions will recover MTN Nigeria’s subscriber
base in line with our broad expectations for 2022.
MTN Ghana SIM registration
The national SIM card re-registration exercise in Ghana continues following the
earlier deadline of 30 September 2022 communicated by the Ministry of
Communication and Digitalisation. To this end, MTN Ghana had registered
15.2 million subscribers using the Ghana National ID by the end of September 2022,
with approximately 5.6 million yet to complete their registration with the second
phase of bio-capture, after going through the first phase of the exercise.
On 17 October 2022, the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation announced
that all services with the exception of USSD services for SIM cards that have not
completed their registration should be blocked from 1 November 2022. However, the
regulator through a meeting on 31 October 2022 has asked that this directive be
placed on hold until the National Communications Authority (NCA) provides further
information or guidance.
MTN Ghana is working with the regulator and has deployed extensive resources to
ensure a speedy completion of the registration exercise.
Outlook
The MTN Group continues to demonstrate the resilience of its business model as it
withstands the prevailing macroeconomic and regulatory conditions in our markets.
We anticipate inflationary pressures and foreign currency volatility to remain
challenging for our customers, supply chains and our business in the final quarter of
2022.
With South Africa’s on-grid power likely to remain constrained, MTN SA resilience
plan will alleviate some of the impact on network availability and other business
functions in that market.
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The focus in Nigeria will be on the coverage and capacity of the network to
accommodate rising demand for data and expand rural coverage and home
broadband. We will continue to ramp up gross connections and drive NIN-SIM
linkage, growing the subscriber base to offset the impact of a potential increase in
churn.
As we navigate some of the short-term regulatory headwinds in the fintech operating
environment, we will focus on continuing to scale our ecosystem, including
accelerating growth in active wallets for MoMo PSB. We are on track to re-launch
NIBSS inbound and outbound offerings in Q4 2022.
We are excited by the momentum and prospects of our fintech business, reflected in
the strong trajectory in transaction volumes, users, agents and merchants. This lays
the foundation to grow the advanced services across our banktech, insurtech,
remittances and payment & e-commerce verticals.
The second phase of our engagements with select potential strategic investors for
binding offers for minority investment into MTN Group Fintech is progressing and we
anticipate concluding the process and getting to an outcome in early Q1 2023.
Overall, we will continue to implement our interventions to steer through the current
challenging macroeconomic conditions with a focus on executing on our commercial
initiatives, managing supply chains, safeguarding our networks and further
strengthening our financial resilience. In this regard our expense efficiency
programme and working capital initiatives are paramount, along with our enduring
focus on balance sheet flexibility and strong liquidity position.
We will continue to invest in our network to meet growth ambitions, cognisant also of
foreign currency volatility and potential disruptions to supply chains. We plan to
spend a total of R35.3 billion in Capex in 2022, unchanged from previous guidance,
maintaining Capex intensity within our target range of 15-18%.
We have agreed a strategic alliance agreement with Microsoft to accelerate digital
and cloud transformation, working towards a shared vision of driving Africa’s growth.
The agreement will help to enable MTN’s strategic priority of supporting
governments, customers and businesses of all sizes using the versatility of Microsoft
platforms, solutions and capabilities to accelerate value creation.
It centres on transforming and modernising MTN’s communications and technology
infrastructure, along with harnessing both organisations’ capabilities, to build the
largest and most valuable platform business with a clear focus on Africa.
In addition, the parties will also execute a carrier agreement which will position MTN
as a major provider of terrestrial connectivity to support Microsoft’s Africa-based
expansion plans.
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Despite the near-term uncertainties in our operating environment, we are confident
that the structurally higher demand for data and fintech services is intact, supporting
our medium-term growth outlook. We remain focused on executing on our Ambition
2025 strategy to drive growth, deleverage the Holdco balance sheet faster and
unlock value. We maintain our Group medium-term guidance.
The full financial results are available on the MTN’s website at:
https://www.mtn.com/investors/financial-results/?report_cat=quarterly-results
Abbreviations:
KPI: Key performance indicators
SIM: Subscriber Identity/Identification Module
Business Group: Consist of internet service providers in Namibia, Kenya and Botswana
Towerco: Tower companies
Holdco leverage: Holdco net debt (including MTN GC)/SA EBITDA + cash upstreaming
PSB: Payment service bank
CVM: Customer value management
ERM: Effective rate per minute
MB: Megabyte
GB: Gigabyte
PB: Petabyte
NIN: National Identification Number
FFTH: Fiber to the Home
FWA: Fixed wireless access
MBB: Mobile broadband
04 November 2022
Fairland
Lead sponsor
Tamela Holdings Proprietary Limited
Joint sponsor
JP Morgan Equities (SA) Proprietary Limited
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