Emmanuel Ochayi
MTN Nigeria has announced its plans to issue two series of commercial papers valued at N52.895 billion, signaling a strategic move to diversify its financing options.
The company’s Secretary, Uto Ukpanah, confirmed this development in a corporate notice filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
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Ukpanah stated, “The issuance is part of the company’s strategy to diversify its financing options with the funds being deployed towards short-term working capital and funding requirements.” While the company promises to provide more details to the market later, this move follows MTN Nigeria‘s successful raise of N125 billion through the issuance of commercial papers in series 6 and 7.
Notably, the earlier commercial paper offering, which aimed to raise N100 billion, witnessed success, recording a 146 percent subscription with N125 billion raised across both series. This performance included a 181-day commercial paper with a yield of 13 percent and a 265-day commercial paper at a yield of 13.50 percent, issued on August 23, 2023.
MTN Nigeria’s recent financial results for the first nine months of 2023 revealed a 21.8 percent growth in revenue, reaching N1.77 trillion compared to N1.45 trillion in September 2022. However, net finance costs increased by 174.4 percent to N375.95 billion, resulting in a 42 percent decrease in profit before tax to N232.46 billion.
Earnings per share also decreased by 45.2 percent to N7.06 kobo, and profit after tax declined by the same percentage to N147.36 billion. On a positive note, MTN Nigeria’s mobile subscriber base reached a record high of 77.6 million users, with an addition of approximately 2 million users in the past nine months.
The company also expanded its fintech business, with active wallets increasing by 1.6 million to 3.6 million, supported by over 293,000 MoMo agents and 197,000 merchants.
Emmanuel Ochayi is a journalist. He is a graduate of the University of Lagos, School of first choice and the nations pride. Emmanuel is keen on exploring writing angles in different areas, including Business, climate change, politics, Education, and others.
