Airtel to Pay $13bn Dividend Regardless of $549m FX loss

Airtel to Pay $13bn Dividend Regardless of $549m FX loss

The board of Airtel Africa has proposed a closing dividend of $3.27 per share for the yr ending March 2024.

The telecoms big will probably be paying $13.39bn dividend for the interval underneath evaluate, in line with its audited annual reviews filed with the Nigerian Alternate Restricted on Thursday.

The agency had earlier proposed an interim dividend of $2.38 per share, bringing the full dividend for the monetary yr to $5.95 per share.

In March, the corporate introduced the graduation of its share buy-back programme, shopping for again 7,389,855 shares, decreasing its shareholding to three,750,761,649 extraordinary shares of $0.50 nominal worth every.

The telco said that the impact of the capital discount was to “create further distributable reserves, which will probably be accessible to the corporate going ahead and could also be used to facilitate returns to shareholders sooner or later, whether or not within the type of dividends, distributions or purchases of the corporate’s shares”.

In the meantime, Airtel Africa suffered a $89m loss after tax, primarily because of important international change headwinds, leading to a $549m loss web of tax following the devaluation of the naira in June 2023 and fourth quarter of 2023/2024, and the Malawian kwacha devaluation in November 2023.

The corporate remarked, “The after-effects of the CBN announcement continued to affect the change price materially throughout January 2024, when the Nigerian naira to the US greenback moved to 1,414 per USD, which was additionally above the brink proportion as per the group’s distinctive merchandise coverage.

“Over February and March 2024, the Nigerian naira to US greenback moved again to shut at 1,303 per USD, which was in impact a partial reversal of the losses seen in January 2024. This resulted in a fabric affect on the group’s monetary outcomes, arising from the interpretation of financial gadgets at closing change charges resulting in materials derivatives and international change losses. In the course of the yr, the devaluation of Nigerian naira has resulted in spinoff and international change losses of $1.07m.”

Airtel Africa’s income declined by 5.25 per cent to $4.98bn from $5.26bn, reflecting the affect of forex devaluation, notably in Nigeria.

The group cellular companies income grew by 19.4 per cent in fixed forex, pushed by voice income development of 11.9 per cent and knowledge income development of 29.2 per cent.

Cell Cash income was up by 32.8 per cent with a continued robust efficiency in East Africa.

Regardless of the financial headwinds from the Nigerian market, the group affirmed that it might proceed to put money into Nigeria to allow it to seize the expansion alternative.

“This continued funding will facilitate development, drive continued digitalisation throughout the nation, facilitate financial progress and remodel lives throughout Nigeria,” it famous.

Commenting on the outcomes, the outgoing Chief govt officer, Olusegun Ogunsanya, mentioned, “The constant deployment of our ‘win with’ technique supported the acceleration in fixed forex income development over the latest quarters, which has lowered the affect of forex headwinds confronted throughout most of our markets.

“Moreover, our rigorous strategy to de-risking our stability sheet and our capital allocation priorities has materially lowered the dangers that the forex devaluation has had on our enterprise. Key initiatives embrace the discount of US greenback debt throughout the enterprise and the buildup of money on the HoldCo stage to completely cowl the excellent debt due.

“We are going to proceed to deal with decreasing our publicity to forex volatility. At first of March, we launched our first buyback programme, reflecting the power of our monetary place. The expansion alternative that exists throughout our markets stays compelling, and we’re properly positioned to ship in opposition to this chance.”

Ogunsanya will probably be succeeded as CEO by Sunil Taldar on July 1, 2024, who joined Airtel Africa in October 2023 as a director.

On Thursday, Airtel Africa additionally introduced the appointment of Paul Arkwright, CMG, as an unbiased non-executive director, with speedy impact.

The corporate reported a 99.6 per cent decline in its post-tax revenue to $2m on the finish of the 9 months ended December 2023, from $523m on the finish of the identical interval in 2022.