MTN Group Ltd. reported strong first-half growth and cash generation as the African telecommunications company advanced its planned acquisition of IHS Holding Ltd. and launched a share buyback programme of as much as R6 billion.
Service revenue rose 17.5% to R115 billion in constant-currency terms in the six months through June, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, excluding once-off items, increased almost a quarter to R56 billion, MTN said.
Growth was driven by operations including Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon, while South Africa delivered more modest growth as MTN deliberately reset its large prepaid customer base.
The results come after MTN launched its Ambition 2030 strategy, which targets further value creation while committing the group to return between 40% and 60% of equity free cash flow to shareholders through dividends or share buybacks.
MTN has begun a programme to repurchase about 31 million ordinary shares for up to R6 billion. The programme will continue subject to market conditions and whether the purchases remain value accretive to shareholders.
IHS transaction advances
MTN is also moving closer to completing its proposed acquisition of the remaining shares in IHS, a transaction the company says would be accretive to revenue, profit after tax and adjusted headline earnings per share on a pro forma basis.
The deal has received approvals from several regulators, including Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
As a condition of some approvals, MTN will sell a 30% stake in IHS Nigeria to local Nigerian investors on commercial terms and subject to market conditions.
MTN expects the IHS transaction to close in the second half of 2026, pending outstanding regulatory approvals.
Fintech remains a growth engine
MTN’s fintech business continued to expand, with 70.8 million active Mobile Money users generating more than $330 billion in transaction value during the period, an increase of more than a third.
Transaction volumes increased 17% to 13 billion, while active fintech agents rose to 1.4 million. Active fintech merchants increased more than 18% to 2.3 million.
The growth underscores the increasing importance of financial technology to MTN’s broader strategy as mobile connectivity becomes increasingly integrated with payments and digital financial services across its markets.
Network investment
MTN invested almost R20 billion in capital expenditure during the first half, targeting mobile-network expansion, home connectivity and IT modernization.
The group served 317.7 million customers across 19 markets at June 30, including more than 179 million active data users. Data traffic increased almost 23% to 14.3 petabytes.
MTN said average inflation across its markets slowed to 9.3% from 14%, while exchange rates against the dollar were broadly stable. Currencies in most of its markets weakened against the rand, however, weighing on reported earnings in South African currency.
MTN South Africa’s service revenue rose 1.5%, although growth accelerated to 2.3% in the second quarter from 0.7% in the first. Subscribers declined marginally to 39.5 million amid intense competition and constrained liquidity.
The company said it remains focused on improving the quality of its prepaid customer base while growing its postpaid, enterprise and wholesale businesses.
MTN reaffirmed its medium-term guidance, saying rising digital adoption and financial inclusion across Africa should support long-term demand for connectivity, fintech and digital infrastructure.
“While geopolitical developments, foreign exchange volatility and inflationary pressures remain areas of focus, our diversified portfolio, strong balance sheet, strong market positions, and disciplined execution provide resilience,” CEO Ralph Mupita said.
