Research archive for MTN

That is most Ayoba. I am referring to the MTN results for the full year to end December. Released this morning, it was telegraphed of course with the trading statement last week. What stands out immediately for me is the dividend. I did not expect a 55 percent payout ratio, I must be honest. That sounds like a little more than a lot of people might have expected.

Ah, one of our favourite stocks, MTN came out with a good looking trading update this morning. The company expects adjusted headline earnings per share to increase between 18-23% for the year ended 31 December 2010.

b>MTN are rumoured to be one of the bidders for a stake in Zain Saudi, which the Kuwaiti parent, Zain is looking to sell. It is more than a little cloudy at this time, I must be honest. Reuters reports: "Kuwaiti telecoms carrier Zain has appointed UBS to sell its Zain Saudi unit, sources said on Thursday. Zain selling its Saudi unit is a regulatory condition for Abu Dhabi group Etisalat's $12 billion bid for a controlling stake in Zain. Etisalat and Zain both have units in Saudi Arabia and compete for market share there. Bahrain Telecommunications, or Batelco, and South African group MTN were in talks to buy Zain's Saudi unit, the people said. It was unclear whether other parties were also involved."

MTN released subscriber numbers around lunchtime here. Although, I can tell you that lunchtime here is about as exciting as low level solitaire, there is leaving the desk to make for the kitchen, but then straight back. What passes for culinary excellence on this side is a gourmet sarmie made in-house. Sorry, we are boring. Although Byron made a monster sandwich yesterday filled with all sorts of goodies.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is a central banker governor that the Nigerians, and indeed us Africans can be very proud of. A slight man, but a fellow who when he talks commands a room, and a television audience. There are some people when they talk, we switch and listen. Quality, you should check out web footage, you will see what I mean. Yesterday he said something that allowed MTN shareholders to breath a sigh of relief, Nigeria would not look to devalue their currency. Remember that the Niara airtime sales are converted to US Dollars for the purpose of reporting and then back to Rands. So it is important that the Rand remains pretty steady to the US Dollar.

MTN have their half year results this morning hitting the streets, around 8:30 this morning. The first big difference is a maiden interim dividend, of 151 cents per share. Again the currency has hurt the company, as they explained the average Rand Dollar rate for the first half last year was 9.06 and in this half it was 7.52. As such revenue was hurt, down 2.2 percent to 56 billion Rands for the first half. On a same currency basis, the increase in revenue would have been closer to 13 percent.

MTN and their prospects, after the trading statement yesterday, Paul wrote a piece that I copy pasted. Then there was an interesting trading update from the dudes over at Santam, I thought that it might be interesting to tie in what Buffett thinks of the industry. And how badly have Old Mutual done over the last ten years, what sort of returns would you have got if you had just waited on them for ten years. India and China, check out the work force average age gap and your jaw will drop. And then the Mooi River Index seems to be generating a lot of excitement.

MTN release a trading update this morning too, for the six months to end June 2010. Look, it is complicated like a high school relationship, here goes a copy paste, something that police commissioners do: "Shareholders are advised that MTN expects an increase of between 18.1% and 23.1% in Adjusted headline earnings per share ("Adjusted HEPS") for the six month period ended 30 June 2010 when compared against the previously reported corresponding period."

Moving on to a quality operation, in our opinion, MTN. The company releasing a wave of announcements yesterday. A much bigger implementation of a broad based empowerment deal, with quite a big discount, the deal itself is a little complicated and the release is really long. Plus there is a three year lockup, but that is the norm. If you want the document I have it, email me and I can send it to you. Plus there were a few other announcements that were seen as positive from the broader market, relating specifically to the company's dividend policy, with the possible inception of an interim dividend as soon as August.

MTN, are they or are they not in the Loop? A business called Loop, an Indian Business. This is where the rumour came from: MTN in talks to buy stake in Loop. The long and the short of it is that MTN denied that they were looking to get in on the Loop. The stock closed down nearly three percent to 10444, and traded over 9 million shares, about 1.8 million shares more than the "usual". I guess that makes that easy, we don't even have to take a closer look at the loop. I must admit, our first reaction back at HQ (the office) was if they were buying this business, please let it not be anything remotely like Multi-Links.

MTN and Orascom are not talking anymore, about a deal that is. China exports confound everyone, there was truth in the rumour. Aussie mining tax, will this blow up in Rudd's face? Bernanke talks to the high school economics class. COSATU lining up something, should we listen? Why do we always have to prove to the world something, I am tired of that.

b>MTN and Reliance. What, again? Unconfirmed reports suggest that Anil Ambani could be in town today to talk to the fellows from MTN. Check it out, Indian business publication Moneycontrol reports from last week Thursday: Reliance Comm mulls MTN merger, stake sale. This seems highly unlikely to me, especially in light of the rumours Friday that Etisalat was looking to take a 26 percent stake. Turns out that someone was looking to take a stake, but that party has not been disclosed in the official announcement, sounds crazy. Especially when you are talking about 1.9 billion US dollars worth. Is that all that a 26 percent stake is worth in Reliance? Check this out:

MTN said that despite the noise, you should drop (call) the rumour that they are talking again to India's Reliance communication. Oh well, some rumours last weeks, this one just a few days. We were looking in the office yesterday and could not believe the massive draw down on the Reliance share price, part due to them acquiring a 3G licence and having to pay top dollar, plus increasing regulatory hurdles in India. As this Indian online source puts it: MTN-RCom deal to rejig telecom sector, perhaps at a later stage.

What? Orascom kissed and told yesterday, saying that MTN had offered 7.8 billion US Dollars for the Algerian unit Djezzy. Struggling to say that, just use our presidents initials or nickname. Not the lovepants one. Order! Turns out that the Algerian government could be the buyers of Djezzy, perhaps we knew this all along but did not want it to be so. But they are still talking to MTN about their other business units. I suspect the African ones, not the Asian ones, although it might be quite nice to be giving emperor Kim Jung-Il an Ayoba service. That is right folks, Orascom has an operation in North Korea. As ever we wait, it would be quite nice for MTN to get into Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Smartphones. Remember the Vestact piece on MTN when they released their results and how we explained that the smartphone market was exploding? If not, then watch it here, Vestact on MTN. And then this kind of confirmed the trend that is well and truly in place: Apple, Google lead smartphone surge. See that, smartphones are growing quickly. Everyone wants one.