MTN reports half-year results

South Africa-based MTN Group, which operates cellular networks in 21 countries across Africa and the Middle East, has reported its results for the six months ended June 2007. Highlights were an increase in total subscribers of 20% since 31 December 2006, to 48.2 million; group revenue for the half-year of ZAR34.2 billion (USD4.7 billion), up 69% year-on-year; EBITDA for the same period up 75% year-on-year to ZAR15.2 billion, and an increased EBITDA margin of 44.4%, from 42.9% six months earlier. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) was one of the first mobile operators to enter the South African mobile market when it was launched under the banner M-Cell in 1994. It took on the MTN brand name in late 2002 and today operates two divisions: MTN South Africa and MTN International – comprising operations in Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia, plus a number of subsidiaries across the rest of Africa and the Middle East held through Investcom which was acquired in May 2006.