MTN Nigeria Loses N740bn, its First Loss since NGX Listing

MTN Nigeria Plc has recorded whopping N740 billion loss, its first major financial setback since listing on the Nigerian Stock market.

The reason adduced to the humongous lose, was attributed to; massive foreign currency, operational changes among others.

According to the telecommunication giant, it was the first ever loss since it became a quoted in Nigeria, resulting in a wipe-out of shareholders’ funds.

The company recorded a loss before tax of N177.8 billion compared to a pre-tax profit of N518.8 billion a year earlier.

According to the company, “the loss was significantly due to operational changes to the Nigerian Foreign exchange market, including the abolishment of the segmented/parallel structure announced by CBN in June 2023.”

MTN also stated that it has used an official (NAFEM) exchange rate of N907.11/$1 as of 31 December 2023 suggesting the loss could be wider if the current exchange rate between the naira and dollar persis by the end of March when it publishes its Q1 results.

The highlights and trends from MTN Nigeria revealed the following;

Revenue (2023 vs. 2022): N2.469 trillion vs. N2.012 trillion, +22.69% YoY.
Operating Profit (2023 vs. 2022): N773.660 billion vs. N734.164 billion, +5.38% YoY
Finance Income (2023 vs. 2022): N25.815 billion vs. N13.768 billion, +87.50% YoY
Finance Cost (2023 vs. 2022): N236.927 billion vs. N147.287 billion, +60.86% YoY
Net FX Loss (2023 vs. 2022): N740.434 billion vs. N81.822 billion, +804.93% YoY
(Loss)/Profit after tax (2023 vs. 2022): -N137.021 billion vs. N348.727 billion, -139.29% YoY
(Loss)/Earnings per share (2023 vs. 2022): -N6.38 vs. N16.76, -138.07% YoY
Total Borrowing (2023 vs. 2022): N1.177 trillion vs. N689.673 billion, +70.69% YoY
Total subscribers increased by 5.3% to 79.7 million

Although, Active data users increased by 12.7% to 44.6 million and Active mobile money (MoMo PSB) wallets increased by 163.2% to 5.3 million

Meanwhile, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 12.3% to N1.2 trillion. Net loss for the year has resulted in a depletion of its retained earnings and shareholders’ fund to negative N208.0 billion and N40.8 billion, respectively.

Other updates MTN Nigeria communicated that due to the substantial currency devaluation and its repercussions on retained earnings, the Directors will not propose a final dividend payment, given the resultant loss for the year ended December 31, 2023.

However, it is important to note that MTN Nigeria had on July 27, 2023, approved interim dividends of N117.48 billion for the year ending December 31, 2023, amounting to N5.60 kobo per ordinary share.

Meanwhile, the company (MTNN) closed at N222.90 on the last day of February, representing a year-to-date (YtD) loss of 15.6% for shareholders.

Shareholders’ worries are compounded by the fact that MTNN has lost 19% of the stock’s value from February 1st to date. MTN also stated that despite the losses, they maintained strong free cash flow generation (up 11.6% YoY to N631.6 billion).

According to the Company Commentary:

“2023 witnessed a very challenging operating environment characterised by rising inflation, currency devaluation and foreign exchange shortages, complicated by geopolitical disruptions and cash shortages in Q1 arising from a redesign of the naira.

These factors created severe headwinds for our customers and our business during the year. The inflation rate increased throughout the year, reaching 28.9% in December 2023 – the highest reading in 18 years – with an average rate of 24.5%.

This was further exacerbated by higher fuel prices, arising from the removal of the fuel subsidy in May 2023, with the average prices of diesel and petrol up by 66.4% and 257.1% in 2023 to N1,416.8/litre and N600/litre, respectively. In June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) adopted a more liberal foreign exchange management system and reintroduced the ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ model.

This has resulted in a 96.7% unfavourable movement in the exchange rate against the US dollar from N461.1/US$ in December 2022 to N907.1/US$ (Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) rate) in December 2023.

This development contributed meaningfully to the upward pressure on the cost of doing business in Nigeria, and for MTN Nigeria in particular, significantly increased the costs in relation to our tower leases.”