MTN-Nigeria Lists Tomorrow 16th May, 2019- See Our Take

The long awaited listing of the MTN shares on the floor of The Nigerian Stock Exchange is now closer than ever, Commenting on the announcement, FerdiMoolman, CEO of MTN Nigeria said “It gives me great pleasure to confirm that the official listing via introduction of MTN’s shares on the NSE will take place on Thursday May 16.”

The listing which will be done by way of introductory listing will avail the initial holder of MTN shares the opportunities to publicly trade their shares while other intending share holders will do so through their respective shareholders.

MTN Group is currently valued at about $18 billion, MTN Nigeria is said to contribute about 40% of the group’s profits, and this should give an idea of the strength/size of MTN Nigeria. According to the listing details, MTN Nigeria would be listing a total of 20,354,513,050 shares at N90 implying a market capitalization of N1.831 trillion.

Financial Performance

MTN Nigeria reported a solid first quarter with Service Revenue appreciating by 13.40% over the comparable quarter of 2018, This performance was led by a 32.40% increase in data revenue and a 12.70% increase in voice revenue. The telecommunication firm seems to have experienced a general slowdown in performance during the election period, as this glaringly impacted its voice revenue growth.

Growth in data revenue was enhanced by an increase in smart phone penetration, improved network quality and a 9.10% increase in active data subscribers to 20.4 million as against the previous quarter’s performance indices.

Total subscribers improved by 3.60% over the corresponding quarter as its currently stands at 60.30 million.

Operating Expenses improved over comparable period of 2017 by 14.70% YoY, while Cost of Sales builds marginally by 7.60%, growing from N184.86 billion to N198.93 billion.

MTN Nigeria reported an EBITDA margin of 53.30%. On an IAS 17 basis the margin increased to 44.20%, up 2.40% YoY, this was driven by the growth in revenue and effective cost management.

Other financial highlights are as stated below;

• Service revenue grew by 17.2%
• Voice revenue grew by 18.7%
• Data revenue increased by 39.3%
• Fintech revenue increased by 32.7%
• Digital revenue contracted by 58.1%
• Expenses increased by 12.3%
• Data traffic increased by 56.3%
• EBITDA grew by 30.8% to 453.1 billion (excluding the payment to CBN)
• EBITDA margin grew by 4.6p.p to 43.6% (excluding the payment to CBN)
• CAPEX intensity decreased by 7.4p.p to 17.4%
• Total subscribers increased by 5.9 million to 58.2 million
• Active data users increased by 4.5million to 18.7 million

Our Take

• Listing portends significant liquidity opportunity for all existing holders of MTNN’s shares,
• The Federal Government also gains immensely by attracting MTN to liston the floor of the Nigerian stock exchange via taxes. For example;
• Nigeria currently does not tax capital gains made from the sale of shares, however it does places a 10 per cent withholding tax on dividends paid by companies.
• The government will also gain VAT on commission and fees paid to stockbrokers when shares are bought and sold. In other words, a company of the size of MTN will contribute immensely to government’s tax revenue.
• A major point of investment is the capital gains, usually induced by corporate earnings. MTN being a highly profitable company is likely to record consistent capital gains with ease, and such stands a high chance of boosting capital gains on its shares
• Dividend Returns is another valid investment points for investors, and this is a major strength this company/investors will benefit from any active markets such as Nigerian market. If this is achieved, the company will play a major defensive roles to various portfolios and invariably become the investors’ toast
• In our opinion, taking timely position in the shares of MTN at listing is an intelligent investment decision, as it stands a high chance of protecting investments against the bear weather