MTN Nigeria Plc was hit by a foreign exchange (FX) loss of N126.8 billion in the second quarter (Q2), which crashed after-tax profit for the quarter by 67.7 percent year-on-year to N27.4 billion. The figure is more than ten and half times the multiplication of a foreign exchange loss of N12 billion in the same quarter last year.
The Q2 accounts for much of an FX loss of N131.5 billion the telecommunications company has reported at the end of its half-year operations.
The company’s interim financial report for the six months ended June 2023 shows that the FX loss changed its earnings reading from 19.7 percent increase in operating profit at half-year to a drop of 25.4 percent in pre-tax profit to N200.4 billion for the six months of trading — a drop of more than N68 billion.
Rising interest expenses on the company’s huge borrowings and leases added to the pressure from FX losses and jerked up total finance cost more than two and half times year-on-year to N237.6 billion at half-year.
