MTN Group delivered strong growth, robust cash generation and increased returns in the first half of 2026.

During the six months ended June 30, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), before one-off items, increased 24.4%, on a constant currency basis, and 20% on a reported basis, to R56-billion.

During the half-year under review, the group’s Ebitda margin increased by 4.4 percentage points on a reported basis to 47.1%, and 3.1 percentage points to 47.6% in constant currency.

“The group’s overall performance in the period reflects strong conversion of the commercial momentum we see across our markets into growth in earnings, cashflow and returns. We are encouraged by the record margins delivered in the period as well as the strong cash upstreaming from operations,” said MTN Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita.

Earnings per share declined by 26.1% to 404c, while reported headline earnings per share (HEPS) decreased by 5.8% to 615c, mostly owing to a non-cash impairment of its 49%-held equity-accounted investment in Irancell, equating to a loss of 213c,  and foreign exchange losses in South Sudan.

Headline earnings for the first-half also included non-operational items totalling a net amount of 178c, of which 126c related to foreign exchange losses.

However, adjusted HEPS increased by 21.3% to 793c, reflecting a strong underlying performance of the group. Excluding the impact of Irancell, adjusted HEPS was up 23.7% to 767c.

On a constant currency basis, South Africa’s Ebitda declined 7.7% to R8.51-billion, while in Nigeria and Ghana, Ebitda increased 38.7% and 40% respectively to R19.87-billion and R13.74-billion. On a reported basis, Ghana’s Ebitda increased 13.9%.

“Macro conditions were broadly supportive in the period. Blended average inflation slowed to 9.3% from 14% and the foreign exchange rates of MTN’s main markets were stable against the US dollar. However, against the rand, the currencies of most MTN markets weakened, detracting from earnings growth in rand terms,” said Mupita.

In the first six months of 2026, MTN Group service revenue grew by 17.5% in constant currency, and 9.7% on a reported basis, to R115-billion, led by MTN Ghana, MTN Nigeria, MTN Uganda, MTN Côte d’Ivoire, MTN Cameroon and the broader portfolio.

MTN South Africa’s 1.5% increase in service revenue reflected the near-term cost of deliberate management actions to improve the quality of its large prepaid customer base.

According to the group, MTN South Africa’s service revenue in the second quarter of 2026 grew 2.3%, an increase from the 0.7% in the first quarter of 2026.

During the period under review, data revenue increased by 21% on a reported basis, and 29.2% in constant currency, to R57.6-billion, while fintech revenue increased by 1.4% on a reported basis, and 13.3% in constant currency, to R14.9-billion.

Voice revenue decreased by 3.8% to R30.4-billion on a reported basis. On a constant currency basis, this represented an increase of 2.4%.

Wholesale revenue for the first six months of 2026 increased by 10.3% on a reported basis and 15.5% in constant currency, to R5.2-billion.

During the half-year under review, MTN Group’s capital expenditure (capex), ex-leases, was R19.7-billion, at a capex intensity of 16.6%.

Meanwhile, Mupita commented that the underlying demand for MTN’s services remained strong, with subscriber growth of 6.7% to 317.7-million and active data subscribers growth of 10.3% to 179.3-million.

“The fintech ecosystem continued to show strong growth, with the group’s 70.8-million active Mobile Money (MoMo) users increasing demand for secure and convenient services and lifting the value of MTN fintech transactions by more than a third to $330-billion,” he continued, noting that the volume of these transactions increased by 17% to 13-billion.

The number of active agents grew to 1.4-million, and the number of active fintech merchants increased by more than 18% to 2.3-million. Advanced services led overall fintech revenue growth.

In a highly competitive market marked by constrained liquidity, MTN South Africa recorded a marginal decline in subscribers to 39.5-million, the bulk of whom – at 28.2-million – were prepaid customers.

“MTN South Africa’s prepaid performance was encouraging as we saw improving growth on data, fewer customers using airtime advance for recharging and increased bank recharges. The deliberate reset of the prepaid base will deliver higher quality base growth over time,” Mupita said.

Good growth in the MTN South Africa postpaid, enterprise and wholesale businesses drove stronger growth in the second quarter of 2026 versus first quarter of 2026.

ACQUISITIONS AND BUY-BACK
Following the launch of MTN Group’s Ambition 2030 strategy, the company embarked on various strategic initiatives, most notably the planned acquisition of tower group IHS Holdings and the launch of a share buyback programme.

“On a pro forma basis, MTN’s proposed transaction to buy the remaining shares in IHS is accretive to revenue, profit after tax and adjusted HEPS,” Mupita noted.

The transaction has received approval from various regulators, including Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

As part of the conditional approvals, MTN will sell down 30% of IHS Nigeria to local Nigerian investors, on an arms-length commercial basis and subject to market conditions.

Subject to remaining regulatory approvals, MTN anticipates that the IHS transaction will close in the second half of 2026.

Further, MTN announced the launch of a share buyback programme of about 31-million ordinary shares for an aggregate consideration of up to R6-billion.

Subject to market conditions, the programme will continue for as long as it remains value accretive to MTN shareholders.

“The share buyback programme is part of the shareholder remuneration framework announced with the launch of Ambition 2030, of delivering between 40% and 60% of equity free cashflow to shareholders either in cash dividends or share buybacks,” Mupita said.