"MTN Nigeria’s plans to list have been challenged by the recent Central Bank of Nigeria and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria matters, however, MTN remains committed to the listing in Nigeria and work continues in this regard," Rob Shuter, MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer, said.
Rob Shuter, MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), has said the organisation's plans to be featured on Nigeria's stock exchange listing has been "challenged by the recent Central Bank of Nigeria Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria matters".
His statement was contained in the organisation's 'Quarterly Update for the Period Ended 30 September 2018 and Renewal of Cautionary Announcement'.
According to Shuter, the company recorded an increase in operational performance in the third quarter.
He, however, said despite the challenges, they remain committed to the listing.
He said: “MTN recorded an improved operational performance in many markets in the third quarter. Group service revenue grew by 10.0% year on year, ahead of our medium-term target of upper-single-digit growth, supported by continued strong growth in voice and data revenue. These results were delivered in challenging operating and currency conditions. Group outgoing voice revenue increased by 5.2% and data revenue increased by 23.9%. Higher digital revenue was led by robust growth in MTN Mobile Money.
"The group benefited from the particularly strong performance of operations in Nigeria and Ghana, while some operations in our West and Central Africa (WECA) region remained under pressure. MTN South Africa continues to execute on operational improvements. We made good progress on our key growth drivers of data and digital services, adding 5.0 million active data subscribers and 1.7 million new MoMo subscribers in the quarter.
"We successfully completed the listing of MTN Ghana. MTN Nigeria’s plans to list have been challenged by the recent Central Bank of Nigeria and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria matters, however, MTN remains committed to the listing in Nigeria and work continues in this regard. In the quarter, the group engaged extensively with authorities in Nigeria to deal with the matters they raised."
He also highlighted efforts to ensure improved investment, as well as other achievements during the period under review.
He continued: "Across our markets, we continued to invest in our networks, and now have the leading network net promoter score in 10 of our markets. Reported capital expenditure to the end of the September 2018 was R16,4 billion, a group capex intensity of 16.9%. We continued to optimise our balance sheet structure and reduced our gross US dollar debt by approximately US$400 million. This was supported by proceeds from the sale of MTN Cyprus of US$303 million, the settlement of a loan from our Ugandan Tower Company of US$34 million as well as the proceeds from the MTN Ghana listing of US$202 million received after the quarter’s end.
"We also concluded the refinancing of our US$1.25 billion revolving credit facilities that are maturing in 2019 with a new five-year revolving credit facility of US$1.25 billion at an improved margin, and with an option to increase to US$1.5 billion. We continue to focus on operational improvements across our business and continue to develop our digital businesses."