MTN Ghana CEO, Michael Ikpoki
Telecommunications giant, MTN Ghana has admitted that its market share declined to 51 percent as a result of the entry of a new mobile player.
Although MTN Ghana delivered a strong performance with subscribers increasing by 5.9 percent to 10,76 million, the MTN Group half year results released last week showed a decline in market share.
The report said “as expected, market share declined to 51 percent as a result of the entry of a new mobile player into the market.”
However, despite the aggressive competition in the industry, the company delivered satisfactory results which it largely attributed to attractive segmented promotions across the product portfolio and a well-managed pricing strategy.
MTN Ghana recorded US$734 million revenue in the first half of 2012, representing 22 percent growth.
The rising demand for broadband services and the increasing usage of smartphones also increased data revenue which grew by 193 percent, albeit of a low base.
The 3G market is also becoming increasingly competitive with the five mobile operators investing considerable resources to upgrade or expand their 3G networks.
The report noted that MTN Ghana continued to improve the quality and capacity of the network as well as increase its 3G coverage and capacity.
“During the six months it rolled out 62 2G sites and 21 3G co-located sites bringing total 2G sites to 2,318 and co-located 3G sites to 749.”
It further noted that “MTN Ghana’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin dipped slightly from 38.7 percent at 30 June 2011 to 37.7 percent due to increased rent and utilities from the leasing of the 400 towers previously sold.
“The 2011 EBITDA margin excluded the profit from the sale of the towers. Reported average revenue per unit (ARPU) decreased 10 percent although local currency ARPU increased 4 percent.”
Its total cedi revenue increased by 22.4 percent, and this was mainly driven by an 18.8 percent increase in airtime and subscription revenue, which benefited from promotions driving usage and spend.
The MTN Group delivered a satisfactory set of results recording a surge in subscriber base of 6.9 percent to 175,997 million.
Group revenue increased by 17.5 percent to R66, 426 million due to solid growth in South Africa, Iran and Ghana of 9.5 percent, 29.9 percent and 19.9 percent respectively.
The contribution of airtime and subscription revenue reduced to 63.2 percent from 66.0 percent in the prior comparative period while data revenue increased its contribution to 10.0 percent from 7.0 percent.
This was mainly attributed to strong data growth in South Africa and Nigeria, which contributed 46.8 percent and 28.4 percent respectively to total Group data revenue.
SMS revenue continued to show positive growth and increased its contribution marginally, which was mainly due to the continued success of SMS in Iran and South Africa.
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