JOHANNESBURG - Mobile communications company MTN said on Friday it expected to report an increase in earnings per share of at least 345 cents or 140 percent for the half year ended June.
In a trading update, MTN said this represented earnings per share of more than 592 cents for the six months in question, compared with 247 cents for the corresponding period last year.
Johannesburg Stock Exchange requirements specify that listed companies must publish a trading statement as soon as they are fairly certain that their upcoming financial results will differ by at least 20 percent from the results for the previous corresponding period.
MTN said it expected its interim headline earnings per share (HEPS) to be at least 195 cents or 100 percent higher at more than 390 cents, compared with 195 cents in 2019.
"EPS (earnings per share) includes the benefit from gains amounting to 341 cents on the disposal of the ATC Uganda and ATC Ghana tower joint ventures as announced in March," it said.
"HEPS benefited from non-operational items for the six months ended 30 June ... totalling approximately 50 cents per share ... of which more than half related to foreign exchange gains."
The South Africa company, which also operates in several other African, European and Asian countries, said it would provide a further update on the expected earnings growth ranges once it had reasonable certainty.
MTN is due to publish its group results around August 6.
In May, the company reported continued commercial momentum in the first quarter ended March, with service revenue up 11.1 percent in constant currency.
It however said the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy had brought about unprecedented uncertainty, volatility and challenges which were impacting the company's markets at both the socio-economic and macro-economic levels.
- African News Agency (ANA)