MTN Q1 2024 Report Reveals Loss After Tax of N392.7 Billion

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc recently released its report for Q1 2024, which shows that the telecommunications company recorded a loss after tax of N392.7 billion.

The company reported a net foreign exchange loss of N656.3 billion in Q1, 2024, which led to a record-high FX loss of N1.396 trillion since 2023. The continuous devaluation of the naira put the company in financial crisis.

Also, with the ongoing US dollar volatility, MTN Nigeria is set to reduce its dollar-denominated liabilities and reassess costly tower lease contracts, the LEADERSHIP reports, aiming to align these expenses more closely with its naira earnings.

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MTN Nigeria Communications Plc's Q1 results, released on the Nigerian Exchange, showed that total subscribers increased by 1.3% to 77.7 million; active data users increased by 8.0% to 44.5 million; active mobile money (MoMo PSB) wallets increased by 48.7% to 4.8 million; and service revenue increased by 32.0% to N747.3 billion.

EBITDA, also known as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation, fell by 1.9% to N297.0 billion, and its margin declined by 13.9 percentage points (pp) to 39.4%. 

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc's loss after tax stood at N392.7 billion. While profit after tax (PAT) adjusted for the net forex loss declined by 57.8% to N47.1 billion, earnings per share (EPS) declined to negative N18.63.

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc recorded a positive free cash flow of N117.2 billion, down 35.6% from N182.1 billion in Q1 2023.

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Regarding the Q1 performance, Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria, said, "The operating environment in the first quarter remained very challenging, with rising inflation and continued naira depreciation off an already low base."

He added that "our solid commercial operations enabled us to deliver service revenue growth of 32.0%, which slightly exceeded the average inflation rate in the quarter. This growth was led by double-digit growth in voice, data, and digital services, as well as favourable base effects in Q1, 2023 arising from the challenges in that period (including the redesign of the naira, which resulted in cash shortages)."

According to Toriola, the revaluation of foreign currency-denominated obligations caused a materially higher net forex loss of N656.4 billion in Q1 2023 due to the further depreciation of the naira. As a result, the loss after tax was N392.7 billion instead of the restated PAT of N108.4 billion.

"This has resulted in negative retained earnings and shareholders' equity at the end of March 2024 of N599.2 billion and N434.7 billion, respectively," he noted.

"We will continue to evaluate the conditions and developments in our operating environment and evolve our approach to address the negative capital position as required.

"We have obtained the necessary accommodations from our lenders, as pertains to any impacts on our loan agreements regarding the restatement of our financial statements.

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"We also have accommodations relating to potential breaches in our covenants occasioned by the major currency devaluation and the negative net asset position. This will enable us to continue executing our strategy and implement our outlined interventions."

MTN 2023 FY REPORT

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN Nigeria) in its audited results for the year ended December 31, 2023.

MTN Nigeria recently released its audited results for the year ended December 31, 2023. MTN Nigeria Plc lost N137 billion after-tax (LAT) due to a net forex loss. The company's profit after tax (PAT) adjusted for the net forex loss decreased by 14.3% to N344.5 billion.

MTN Nigeria's net loss for 2023 resulted in a negative loss of retained earnings and shareholders' funds of N208 billion and N40.8 billion, respectively.

MTNN's devaluation of the naira in 2023 also resulted in a materially higher net forex loss of N740.4 billion (2022 restated: N81.8 billion), reflected within net finance costs. This resulted in a reported loss after tax of N137 billion compared to a restated PAT of N348.7 billion in 2022.