MTN Nigeria plans N50 billion commercial paper

MTN Nigeria is returning to the debt market to source N50 billion in commercial paper, the wireless operator said in a statement on Monday, its first since raising N72.1 billion last November.

“The issuance is part of the Company’s strategy to diversify its funding sources,” the company stated in a note to the Nigerian Exchange and hopes to use the cash to bridge the working capital gap in the short term.

The Nigerian operation of Johannesburg-based MTN Group, the continent’s largest wireless operator, is issuing commercial paper for the first time this year.

That compares to last year when it tapped the market four times and raised N375 billion in all.

Financing for MTN Nigeria could be constrained in the last quarter of the year as its current liabilities outran its current assets by N1.5 trillion or 240 per cent at the end of September.

The crisis is a shockwave from a larger financial distress that erupted at the end of the last financial year, when the corporation’s balance sheet turned red, pushing equity into negative territory.

Shareholder funds stood at -N573.6 billion at the end of the third quarter, up from -N40.8 billion a year earlier.

MTN stated in an earnings release document last week it is considering a mix of measures to improve its negative capital position.

The strategies include regulated tariff increases, optimisation of capital expenditure, reduction of US dollar exposure and review of tower lease contracts.

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In August, GCR Ratings, an affiliate of Moody’s, affirmed the national scale long and short-term issuer ratings of AAA and A1+ respectively, as well as the national
long-term issuer rating of AAA is assigned to each of MTN Nigeria’s existing senior unsecured bonds issued.

The share price of MTN Nigeria has shed 35.6 per cent so far this year, underperforming the NGX 30, a group of the thirty top companies by liquidity and market capitalisation on the Nigerian Exchange. NGX 30 had returned 31.7 per cent as of the start of trade on Monday.