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JSE-listed telecoms company the MTN Group says shareholders should expect a knock to the group’s earnings per share (EPS) of between 15 percent and 25 percent for the financial year ending December 2021, citing impairment and non-cash losses in some of its operations.
MTN investors can expect EPS for the period to sit in the range of 710 cents and 804 cents, down from the 946 cents reported in the previous comparable period.
Contributing to the lower EPS were impairment losses related to the group’s Yemen business of about 64 cents, non-cash losses from the deconsolidation of subsidiary MTN Syria amounting to about 262 cents as well as fair value gains on acquisition or disposal totalling 99 cents.
However, the group did also note that it expects to see its full-year profit for the financial year increase by as much as 35 percent.
Up from the headline earnings per share (Heps) of 749 cents reported in the previous period, MTN says it expects its full-year profit between the range of 936 cents and 1 011 cents for the period ended December 31, 2021.
The group noted that the reported Heps include “negative impacts of a number of operational and once-off items with a net total of approximately 123 cents.”
“These include items largely relating to hyperinflation excluding impairments (-42 cents); foreign exchange losses (111 cents); other non-operational items (30 cents) and notable donations related to Covid-19 support for the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Coalition Against Covid-19 (CACOVID) task force in Nigeria (24 cents).”
The group expects to release its full year results for the period ended December 31 on the JSE on Wednesday March 9, 2022. — Moneyweb.
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