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MTN shares continued their downward trend on Tuesday, as the group signalled it would report a drop in interim earnings of up to 30%. The group said it had experienced some pressure in the fintech unit, prepaid in South Africa, and took a writedown in its Iran business.Africa’s largest mobile operator expects HEPS — which strip out the effect of one-off financial events — are expected to come in at 580c-645c, which would be up to 10% lower than the previous comparable period. “The MTN Group delivered a resilient performance, with strong commercial execution and disciplined capital allocation in the period.”On the whole, “service revenue has grown in line with medium-term guidance, with some pressures in fintech partially driven by the regulatory suspension of airtime advances in Nigeria. As previously communicated and expected, the South African prepaid market continued to be tough in Q2 2026, specifically on voice service revenue trends.”Adjusted HEPS are set to come in 18%-23% higher than the 657c recorded in the first half of 2025. MTN said this measure is a better reflection of its actual performance.“Overall, we experienced strong earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) margin expansion and free cash flow growth in the period, with strong cash upstreaming to the group.”“Given the geopolitical and economic conditions as well as the war in Iran during the period, we took a material asset impairment in the 49% minority investment in Irancell.”The group also highlighted progress being made in acquiring Nigerian cellphone tower operator IHS. The group said the completion of regulatory approvals across the various markets in which IHS operates “remains the only outstanding condition precedent”.Shares in MTN closed Tuesday’s trading session down 5.99% to R193.20. This adds to losses in recent weeks following news that the group’s second-largest business, in Ghana, was facing legal action around the establishment of its fintech operation.Over the past month the stock is down 15.27%.
