South African-based pay TV operator MultiChoice Group’s full-year 2022 results showed it incurred a ZAR367m loss (N10 billion) in Nigeria due to a 5% decline in average exchange rate YoY.
As businesses and Nigerians are worried over the foreign exchange volatility and its attendant negative effects, the naira has kept on weakening steadily due to increased speculation, falling external reserves, and low forex inflows.
Checks by Nairametrics also revealed that trade and other receivables saw a net outflow on the back of a security deposit of ZAR0.6 billion in relation to Nigeria tax audit, a ZAR.2 billion prepayment relating to additional satellite capacity in Rest of Africa (RoA) an increase in debtors from the take up of price lock deals and an increase in DSTV media sales corporate debtors.
Group’s Highlights
- The group subscriber base increased by 5% to 21.8m as the Rest of Africa (RoA) added another 0.9 million subscribers, an acceleration from the 0.8 million added in FY’21.
- Revenue grew by 3% in a tough macro and consumer environment to ZAR 55.1 billion from ZAR 53.4 billion. Trading margin was steady at 19%, despite absorbing ZAR1.1 billion in deferred content costs.
- Core headline earnings rose by 6%, free cash flow dropped by 3% due to ZAR1.1 billion in repayments declared dividend of ZAR2.5 billion consistent with the prior 2 years.
What the company is saying
Calvo Mawela, the CEO, said: “Reduced losses in the Rest of Africa (RoA), a rebound in advertising revenues and a continued focus on cost containment enabled us to absorb the R1.1bn ($74.5 million) impact of a normalisation in content costs as live sport returned and we resumed our local content production post the COVID-19 lockdowns”.
“As a platform of choice, our group will look to further expand our entertainment ecosystem by identifying growth opportunities that leverage our scale and local capabilities.”
In case you missed it
- Nairametrics reported that despite high inflation, fuel shortages and frequent electricity blackout in Nigeria, MultiChoice Group’s full-year 2022 results showed Nigeria leads the Rest of Africa (RoA) in percentage of subscription revenue and year-on-year subscription growth.
- When compared to the rest of African countries with MultiChoice presence such as Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and Angola, Nigeria ranked first with y-o-y subscription growth of 11% and 43% of subscription revenue in full-year 2022.
- The growth was on the back of regionalisation which produced positive results to unlock market potential and agreement with FIRS to postpone court challenges and commence tax audit.
Also, the popularity of local content like Big Brother Naija had a massive impact on the performance of the RoA operations.
Kenya followed with a drop of 4% in y-o-y subscription growth and 9% growth in subscription revenue during the financial year. Zambia reported a drop of 3% in y-o-y subscription growth and 7% growth in subscription revenues in FY’2022, while Angola trailed with y-o-y subscription growth of 1% and 5% of subscription revenue in FY’2022.
