MTN Nigeria has said it made a total revenue of N975.76 billion for the third quarter of 2020, an increase of N119. 22 billion to N856.549 billion recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019. This represents a 13.9% rise in total revenue for Q3 2020, compared to the same quarter of 2019 The result which is posted on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, also showed that operating profit rose by 7.8% from N284.73 billion in Q3 2019 to N307.01 billion in Q3 2020. The growth in operating profit was largely impacted by the increase in finance costs as a result of increased borrowings (September 2019: N381 billion, September 2020: N509 billion), leading to a decline of 0.6% in profit before tax to N211.6 billion.
Within the period, mobile subscribers on the network increased by 3.9 million to 75million, while active data users increased by 1.7 million to 30.7 million. Service revenue also increased by 13.9% to N973.8 billion, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 9.1% to N497.9 billion.
EBITDA margin declined by 2.3 percentage point (pp) to 51.0%, due to cost pressures arising mainly from increased investments in the firm’s network and the impact on costs of the depreciation to the CBN and NAFEX exchange rates.
Profit before Tax (PBT) declined by 0.6% to N211.6 billion. Earnings Per Share (EPS) declined by 3.3% to N7.1 kobo Commenting on the rationale behind the revenue growth in the latest financials posted by the firm, the CEO of MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman, said, “Following a decline in voice traffic and an acceleration in data during lockdowns in Q2, we have seen a normalisation of traffic as restrictions have been removed, with a recovery voice traffic and continued growth in data. This has supported a 13.9% growth in service revenue, with an acceleration of growth to 16.5% in Q3 specifically.”
