Nigeria’s largest telecommunications company MTN became the first publicly listed company to hit the N2 trillion mark in revenues.
MTN first cross one trillion naira in revenues in 2019 meaning it has taken the company just three years to surpass N2 trillion in revenues.
The company released its 2022 audited financial statements posting revenue of N2 trillion a 21.6% rise from the N1.6 trillion reported in 2021 (which at the time was also record-breaking).
Never in the history of Nigeria has a quoted company reported revenues of N2 trillion in a financial year. MTN becomes the first, while also reporting a blistering N358.8 billion in profit after tax.
MTN Becomes First Quoted Company In Nigeria To Post N2 Trillion In Revenues
The company’s profits delivered a whopping return on average equity of 119.5% also one of the highest we have ever seen since Nairametrics started keeping track of company financial statements performance.
MTN also said it will be paying a dividend of N10 per share taking its total dividend to N15.5 per share, which delivers an indicative dividend yield of 6.68%.
Its share price remained flat at N225 per share suggesting investors were yet to fully digest the impact of the results on the company’s current value.
A cursory review of the results of the company shows MTN recorded growth in all segments of its business with voice and data leading the revenue surge.
The year 2022 was a difficult year for Nigeria on the macro-economic front thus making MTN’s blistering performance poignant.
According to its CEO, Karl Toriola explained that the high inflation rate led to a dip in consumer spending during the year. However, the company was still able to record growth across its key business segments supported largely by strategic investments.
“Our strong commercial momentum, supported by an accelerated investment in our network, enabled growth across all revenue lines.
As a result, we recorded a 21.5% increase in service revenue, above the average inflation rate and in line with our medium-term growth guidance. Our ability to maintain service revenue growth while unlocking efficiencies through disciplined execution of our expense efficiency programme led to a 22.0% growth in EBITDA and a 0.2pp expansion in EBITDA margin to 53.2%, in line with our medium-term target range.”
Karl Toriola resumed as MTN CEO in March 2021, and has led the company through a new growth phase which is termed “Ambition 2025”.
Voice Calls
In its voice category, the company reported a revenue of N1 trillion up 6.6% from the prior year.
While growth in voice calls has fallen to single digits over the years, it still remains the company’s dominant revenue puller.
The company stated that its mobile subscribers increased a whopping 10.5% during the year adding 7.2 million new subscribers and taking its total to 75.6 million subscribers.
Source: Nairametrics