MTN Invests A Total Of N121.5 Billion In 2020 In Bonds, Treasury Bills and Foreign Deposits

Telecoms company, MTN Nigeria invested the sum of N121.5 billion in bonds, treasury bills, and foreign currency deposits last year, 2020. This is about N112 billion more than the N9 billion the company invested in 2019. 

About N143.96 billion was raised by the mobile network giant for the year 2020 which was to be used to expand its network, however, all plans were put halted as the lockdown resulting from the COVID pandemic put all major activities on hold. This included all outlets the funds raised were supposed to be used on. Interest rates for the loans obtained by the company are all in the range of 3.5 percent and 5.8 percent p/a.

Interest rates for low-risk/risk-free government securities dropped last year in 2020, as usual, investment activities took a hit. This pushed a lot of investors to the stock market, sending a large amount flowing into the NSE, enabling it to wrap the year as one of the best-performing markets in the world, at over 50 percent.

MTN Nigeria stock has a notable amount of cash in its depository, and investing in T-bills is an important part of its financial activities. Despite the fact that treasury bills yield no returns, corporate organizations prefer the option of investing in them to leaving their money in commercial banks.

In 2020, MTN invested about N93 billion in fixed deposits, about $50 million (N93 billion)in US dollar deposits, as well as N34.8 billion in treasury bills. These earned the company a total of about N15.84 billion.

The company's shares (MTNN) are currently trading for N165 Naira on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and have a market capitalization of N3.358 trillion. Last year, it recorded the highest full-year turnover by a Nigerian listed entity as it's revenue grew 15.1 percent year-on-year to N1.3 trillion. This was as data sales went up 51.5 percent from the past year, thanks to the lockdown. Their voice service however didn't do as well, going up by only about 5.6 percent year-on-year, and recorded a 10.6 percent growth in revenue in the last quarter of 2021, compared to Q3.