Mobile operator, MTN Ghana has secured a $276 million Stanbic Bank-led syndicated loan from 16 local banks and four foreign banks, the company announced May 16, 2012.
The loan, the telecoms firm indicated will be used to expand its network especially its 3G.
The local banks are providing MTN an amount of $215.8 million (GH¢410 million) in addition to $60 million from the foreign banks, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Ikpoki told the Reuters news agency after signing the agreement in Accra.
According to the Reuters report, Ikpoki said the cedi syndication was oversubscribed by 35% while the dollar counterpart was also oversubscribed by more than 90%.
Early March 2012, the MTN Group, based in South Africa, authorised an amount of approximately $149 million (ZAR 1,128 million) as capital expenditure (capex) for its Ghanaian subsidiary for the year 2012, according to the Group’s 2011 financial results.
MTN Ghana spent GH¢720 million on its operations and made a revenue of GH¢1.277 billion in the year 2011.
The company on May 4, 2012 reported that 21,237 of it subscribers have been disconnected. The disconnection was due to subscribers’ inability to register during the SIM registration exercise which ended March 1, 2012.
Despite losing some subscribers, the customer base of MTN Ghana increased from 10,156, 000 as at December 2011 to 10,394,000 at the end of March 31, 2012 representing a 2.3% increase.
MTN Ghana contributed 6.1% to their parent company’s total subscriber base. The MTN Group recorded 170,573,000 subscribers as at March 31, 2012.
By Ekow Quandzie