MTN Uganda approves $45.62mln second interim dividend on better earnings

PHOTO

MTN Uganda has declared its second interim dividend payment worth Ush167.91 billion ($45.62 million), which will mean Ush7.5 ($0.002) per share.

The decision follows an improved performance of the company’s financial position during the nine months to September 30. That means total interim dividends to shareholders approved by the board so far this year will be Ush315.67 billion ($85.77 million) or Ush14.1 ($0.003) per share.

The company declared the initial interim dividend of Ush147.76 billion ($40.14 million) translating to Ush6.6 ($0.001) per share in August which was later paid to shareholders in September.

The telco, a subsidiary of South Africa’s MTN Group posted a 29.6 percent growth in net profit to Ush459.41 billion ($124.83 million) in the nine months to September 30 from Ush354.44 billion ($96.3 million) in the same period last year buoyed by improved performance in data, voice and mobile money business units.“The board and management is pleased with the strong performance recorded in this period, which is in line with our commitment to our shareholders,” said Sylvia Mulinge, the company’s Chief Executive.

The company listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) through an initial public offering (IPO) in November 2021 by selling a 12.97 per cent stake.

In June, it floated an additional 7.03 percent shareholding on the exchange to comply with the Uganda government requirement to offload a minimum of 20 percent stake to the local investors.

In the nine months to September 30 the company’s total revenue grew by 19.6 per cent to Ush2.33 trillion ($633.11 million) from Ush1.94 trillion ($527.14 million) in the same period last year according to the unaudited financial statements released on Tuesday (November 5).

Its service revenues grew by 20.1 per cent to Ush2.3 trillion ($624.96 million) from Ush1.92 trillion ($521.7 million) driven by positive performances of the commercial metrics across all our business lines particularly sustained subscriber growth of 13.3 percent in a highly competitive market.

Non-service revenues however declined by 14.5 percent to Ush23.36 billion ($6.34 million) from Ush27.31 billion ($7.42 million).

Voice revenues grew by 13.7 percent to Ush941.69 billion ($255.87 million) from Ush828.3 billion ($225.06 million) while data revenues grew by 30.1 percent to Ush585.77 billion ($159.16 million) from Ush450.32 billion ($122.36 million).

Mobile money revenues grew by 25.6 per cent to Ush669.19 billion ($181.83 million) from Ush532.87 billion ($144.79 million).“Our service revenue grew by 20.1 percent anchored by the resilient performance of voice and solid growth in our data and fintech verticals,” said Ms Mulinge.“We strategically extended our fiber network with a focus on the greater Kampala metropolitan region and key cities in the upcountry region.”During the period under review the company invested Ush297.9 billion ($80.94 million) in the network infrastructure with a focus on new growth opportunities in the mobile and home data space.

The company attributed the increased data revenue to growing data usage and increased active subscriber base.“This was delivered on the back of our focused investments in the network which increased adoption of our data proposition on both 4G and 5G,” the company saysIts mobile subscribers increase by 13.3 percent to 21.6 million, data subscribers increased by 24.1 percent to 9.3 million while fintech subscribers grew by 13.2 percent to 13.2 million.

The company’s device financing strategy yielded a 30.1 percent rise in smartphones connected to the network and growing penetration to 42.3 percent from 36.6 percent while data traffic on the network recorded an increase of 48.5 percent, of which 76.8 percent was carried on the 4G network compared to 70.8 percent in 2023.

Overall data revenue contribution to service revenue increased by two percentage points to 25.4 percent from 23.4 percent in 2023.

Financial technology (Fintech) revenue grew by 23.5 percent supported by sustained momentum in mobile money performance.

Total expenses grew by 16.9 percent to Ush1.12 trillion ($304.32 million) from Ush963.24 billion ($261.73 million) with net finance costs rising by 14.2 percent, largely driven by the higher network related leases as we invest in new sites across the country.