MTN Uganda declares fresh interim payout on profit rise
Thursday November 09 2023
MTN Customer care staff attend to Data and bundles clients during an MTN Expo in 2018. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG
MTN Uganda has declared its latest quarterly dividend equivalent to Ush5.94 per share after announcing a 21.1 percent growth in net profit to Sh14.2 billion for the nine months ended September.
Total revenue jumped 15.9 percent to Ush1.94 billion ($515,957), contributing to the increase in earnings.
“Notice is hereby given that the company’s directors have approved the payment of a second interim dividend of USh6.0 per share…for the quarter ended 30 September 2023,” the telco said in a statement.
Read: MTN Uganda posts 20pc pre-tax profit
“In line with the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) Trading Rules 2021, the ex-dividend date will be Tuesday, 28 November 2023. Accordingly, an investor who buys MTN Uganda shares before this date will be entitled to the interim dividend. Any investor buying MTN Uganda shares after Tuesday, November 28, 2023, will not be entitled to the interim dividend declared for the period.”
The new dividend will be paid on December 22, the company added. Kenyan individual and institutional investors are among the beneficiaries of MTN’s dividend payouts.
They include the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which held 39.8 million shares, billionaire investor Baloobhai Patel (15.7 million) and the Central Bank of Kenya Pension Fund (12.4 million), according to records as of December 2022.
Investors who acquired shares in Airtel Uganda through its recently concluded initial public offering (IPO) are also set for regular dividends, with the telco committing to distribute at least 95 percent of the net or retained earnings per annum.
Airtel Uganda relied heavily on the country’s pension fund and retail investors, including citizens of East Africa, to raise Ush ($56 million) in the IPO which was undersubscribed.
Read: NSSF Uganda acquires 50pc of Airtel’s IPO stock
Most of the funds came from Uganda’s NSSF, which acquired 4.2 billion shares, giving it a 10.55 percent stake in the telco.
Individual investors acquired 136 million shares, amounting to a 0.34 percent stake in the company.
Their stake, including incentive shares they were allotted for free, is valued at about Ush13.54 billion ($3.6 million).
The pension fund helped the IPO hit a 54.45 percent performance mark as most institutional investors snubbed the deal in which the telco sold shares at Ush100 each.