MTN Group Earnings Rise Despite Difficult Conditions; Backs 2023 Outlook

By Joe Hoppe

MTN Group said earnings rose in the first nine months of the year despite difficult macroeconomic conditions and inflation, and it backed its expectations for the full year.

The South Africa-based telecommunications group said Tuesday that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the nine months to Sept. 30 were 70.31 billion South African rand ($3.84 billion) compared with ZAR68.40 billion a year before.

Group service revenue for the quarter was ZAR50.91 billion compared with ZAR53.51 billion. The metric rose 9.0% on a year-to-date basis to ZAR156.31 billion.

Voice revenue declined 0.6%, data revenue was up 15.3%, total subscribers increased by 1.8% to 290.1 million and active data subscribers rose by 6.7% to 144.6 million.

MTN Group expects to deploy capital expenditure broadly in line with guidance for 2023 of ZAR40.1 billion. It expects to pay a minimum dividend of around 330 South African cents per share.

Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 07, 2023 01:21 ET (06:21 GMT)

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