MTN blames drop in income on under-performance in Nigeria

MTN Group has said that its decreased financial results for the year ended December 31, 2015 was as a result of operational underperformance in its Nigeria’s segment.
The group made the disclosure in a statement in Lagos on Saturday.
It said the group was currently in the process of finalising its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2015, which would be announced on JSE Limited Stock Exchange News Service on March 3.
According to the statement, the company is expecting to report a decrease of, at least, 20 per cent in basic Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS).
“The negative earnings performance has been impacted by a number of factors with the operational underperformance in Nigeria.
“This is resulting from the subscriber disconnections and the withholding of regulatory services, being a key contributor to this.
“Given the on-going discussions taking place with the Nigerian authorities, there remains some uncertainty as to the final quantum of the Nigerian fine, should an out of court settlement be reached.
“Notwithstanding the uncertainty of the outcome of the various engagements relating to the fine, shareholders are advised that, excluding the fine, the company is expecting to report a decrease of, at least, 20 per cent in basic Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS).
“This equates to a reduction of at least 307 cents for the year ended Dec. 31, 2015, when compared with the previously reported HEPS (FY2014) of 1,536 cents,’’ it said.
The statement advised shareholders that a further trading statement would be issued as soon as there was a reasonable degree of certainty as to the likely range within which the company’s HEPS was expected to decrease.
MTN Nigeria was fined N1.04 trillion by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failure to deactivate 5.1 million subscribers with incomplete registration on its network.
After pleading and stating that paying the fine would impact on its ability to expand, NCC reduced it to N780 billion.