MTN Uganda Limited (MTN Uganda) announced its audited results for the financial year ended 31 December 2021.
The company delivered a resilient operational performance with overall mobile subscriber, recording an increase by 10.7% to reach 15.7 million. Active data subscribers increased by approximately 16.0% to 5.3 million supported by the data growth initiatives. As for fintech, subscribers increased by 16.3% to 9.9 million and service revenue grew by 9.4% to Ush 2.04 trillion driven by double digit growth in key growth segments of data and mobile money and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 13.8% to Ush 1.06 trillion.
EBITDA margin expanded by 1.8 percentage points (pp) to 51.3%. In addition, the capital expenditure (CAPEX) increased by 15% to Ush 270.2 billion. Profit after tax (PAT)increased by 5.8% to Ush 340.4 billion. Adding, earnings per share increased by 5.8% to Ush 15.2 and final proposed dividend for the financial year is Ush 4.706 per share. Thus, total dividend for the financial year 2021 is Ush 14.99 per share.
Commenting on the results, MTN Uganda CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte said, “2021 marked a major milestone for MTN Uganda as 20% of the issued shares of the company were offered to the market in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) valued at USD 1.25 billion. The IPO reduced the ownership of MTN Group from 96% to 83.05%, which aligns with MTN’s group-wide objective to create shared value, partly through ensuring broad-based ownership in all its operating subsidiaries. This strategic priority also aligns with the Ugandan Communications Commission licensing requirement for a broad-based ownership by Ugandans.”
Outlook
The macroeconomic environment is forecast to improve in 2022. MTN Uganda is well positioned and will continue to invest to benefit from this trend as it continues to drive the objective to lead digital solutions for Uganda’s progress. MTN Uganda also expects a significant opportunity for data growth in fixed connectivity through MTN WakaNet, fiber to home and fiber to business and will continue their investment program in that segment. MTN Uganda is currently progressing with the implementation of a new pricing framework for the fixed data connectivity services to widen the customer catchment area.