Four takeaways from MTN’s H1 financial result

MTN’s revenue increased by 20 percent in the first half (H1) of this year, with voice revenue accounting for the largest chunk of the earnings. This growth, however, slowed compared to last year’s growth of 24 percent.

The yellow network generated N950 billion in the first six months of 2022, surpassing the N791.3 billion the network provider reported in the same period last year.

Although voice revenue constituted the largest chunk of the earnings reported this year, its growth was negatively impacted by the Nigerian Communications Commission’s decision to restrict outgoing calls for 19 million lines to which the National Identification Number has not been linked.

Voice revenue grew by 1.4 percent to N417.3 billion in H1 2022 from N411.7 billion in the same period last year. The growth slowed compared to the 11.7 percent growth in the same period last year.

Therefore, the company’s revenue growth recorded this year was aided by a 61.8 percent surge in average data usage per subscriber and a 2.5 million increase in subscriber base.

Data revenue grew by 52.4 percent to N348.2 billion in H1 2022 from N228.5 billion in the same period last year

In this article, four key metrics that give insights into MTN’s performance are presented, comparing the company’s 2021 results with the past year as reported on NGX.

Profit

MTN reported a profit after tax of N181.6 billion in H1 2022, 28 percent higher than the N141.8 billion recorded in the same period last year.

It also recorded an increase in operating profit by 28.7 percent to N352.3 billion in H1 2022 from N273.7 billion in H1 2021. Operating profit is the profit earned from day-to-day activities of an organisation.

Profit margin

This is a financial ratio that shows how a company is able to turn as much of its revenue into profit. In our analysis, we use the net profit margin, which is measured as the net profit divided by revenue multiplied by hundred. A higher profit margin shows the firm is more efficient in generating more profit from its revenue and vice versa.

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In H1 of 2022, MTN efficiently generated profit from its revenue by 19.1 percent compared to the same period last year when it had 17.9 percent.

Debt to equity ratio

This ratio measures how a company is using more debt to finance its operations or equity. It is measured by dividing the total debt by the total equity. If the debt to equity ratio is high, it means the company is using more debt to finance its operations and vice versa.

In the first six months of 2022, MTN had a debt to equity ratio of 2.39, compared to 2.89 in the comparable periods of 2021.

Cashflow

The cash flow of an organisation shows its liquidity. It is used to know how quickly it can convert its assets into cash.

MTN’s cash and cash equivalents were down by 27.5 percent to N166.8 billion in H1 2022 from N230 billion in H1 2021.

According to Cardinalstone, this weaker cash balance was driven by a 67.1 percent surge in the company’s capital expenditure (capex) to N311.64 billion.

In its conference call with analysts, management revealed that it frontloaded some of its planned CAPEX for the year in H1 2022 to mitigate foreign exchange and supply chain disruption risks.