MTN Group earnings to plummet

The MTN Group has issued a trading statement alerting shareholders that it expects to report a more than 100% decrease in earnings per share (EPS) for the year ended 31 December 2024.

At the same time, it expects to report a decrease of between 59% and 79% in headline earnings per share (HEPS).

Despite this, MTN said it anticipates to report a strong underlying performance for the 2023/24 financial year.

“We are encouraged by the relative stability of some important key macroeconomic factors in the second half of FY24 — such as inflation and foreign exchange rates in some of our key markets,” it said.

It advised shareholders that it expects to report EPS within a range of -781 and -736 cents.

“Considering the reported EPS for the corresponding financial year ended 31 December 2023 of 227 cents, this translates to a range of -554 cents to -509 cents for FY24,” the MTN Group said.

At the same time, it expects to report an HEPS range of between -186 cents and -249 cents, which translates to a range of 66 cents to 129 cents for the financial year.

It said the difference in HEPS was due to several factors, including:

• Impairment losses relating primarily to investments, goodwill, property, plant, and equipment, mainly associated with Sudan, totalling roughly -578 cents (FY23: -40 cents).
• An impairment loss on measurement of disposal groups of around -8 cents (FY23: -50 cents).
• A net loss on the disposal of investments in joint ventures and/or associates and/or subsidiaries of approximately -36 cents (FY23: nil).
• A net loss on disposal of property, plant, equipment, and intangible assets of approximately -7 cents (FY23: -1 cent).

The MTN Group also said factors like hyperinflation adjustments, foreign exchange losses, a deferred tax charge, and other non-operational items had negatively impacted HEPS.

Regarding MTN South Africa, the group expects to report an improvement in the trajectory of the business’s profitability, particularly in the second half of the financial year.

MTN’s share price was trading almost 4% higher in early trade on Thursday.

The anticipated changes in MTN Group’s EPS and HEPS are summarised in the table below.