MTN CEO says crisis-hit South Africa risks being a failed State
South Africa risks becoming a “failed nation state” unless the government resolves challenges including an energy crisis, corruption and extreme unemployment, said MTN Group Ltd.’s chief executive officer.
Africa’s largest wireless carrier said the rolling blackouts — known locally as load-shedding — lopped 695 million rand ($38 million) off its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization last year. South Africa’s state electricity company has imposed almost 12 hours of power cuts every day this year, prompting companies to spend money on power generators.
President Cyril Ramaphosa last month declared a state of disaster to deal with the energy crisis that’s curbing economic growth in Africa’s most-industrialized nation. It’s not just blackouts — the government also needs to create jobs to reduce the unemployment rate from 32.7% and improve the state-run rail and ports company’s lack of capacity to ship goods, which is stymieing plans by miners to expand.
“We have time, but the time is now to act very, very decisively around these crisis issues that the country is facing,” CEO Ralph Mupita said at a briefing on Monday. The state of disaster gives the country “a unique opportunity to accelerate efforts to secure the resilience of critical national infrastructure such as telecommunications,” he said.
Still, MTN increased its full-year dividend to shareholders by 10% to 3.30 rand a share as revenue and profit rose. The board again anticipates paying a minimum ordinary dividend of at least 3.30 rand per share this year, MTN said.
“The macroeconomic environment and regulatory restrictions in passing through high inflation are again becoming a short-term drag to what still looks like an interesting long-term growth story,” said Peter Takaendesa, head of equities at Mergence Investment Managers. “MTN management has executed very well on what they can control.”
MTN’s shares slumped as much as 9.2% in Johannesburg, their biggest intraday decline since December 2020. The stock was 8.8% lower by 12:35 p.m. local time.
“Much of the share price movement today seems to be coming from the MTN South Africa results, specifically around the 695 million rand load-shedding impact,” said Michael Steere, an analyst at Avior Capital Markets. “With MTN SA contributing 22% to group Ebitda, we believe the reaction may be overstated. The group has maintained its medium-term guidance.”
The company has 22 billion rand of cash and is keen to repay part of its $450 million of eurobonds early, CEO Mupita said in an interview.
“MTN has a strong liquidity position of about 60 billion rand,” he said.
The company plans to use the stash to accelerate its network build out, and consider mergers and acquisitions, said Mupita. MTN concluded a towers deal in South Africa last year and sold part of its Nigerian unit in a public offer, which contributed about 12 billion rand to the group’s strategy of paying down group debt and unlocking additional value by 2025.
African telecommunications operators on the continent have been working on unlocking value from different parts of their businesses, such as towers, fiber and their fast-growing fintech operations.
MTN said it has received offers for minority investments in its fintech business from potential strategic partners. It expects to conclude talks about the future of the unit by mid-May 2023. The firm also plans to separate its fiber business by 2024.
“MTN’s CEO delivered a strong warning on South Africa and the risks the country is facing — and the need for those to be addressed urgently,” Nedbank Ltd. equity analysts Ziyad Joosub and Preshendran Odayar said in emailed comments. “Fundamentally, the company delivered a sound earnings and free cash flow performance.”
