{
  "id": 3109635,
  "title": "COMPANIES: Cell C and MTN financials tell different sides of telecoms evolution story",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/companies-cell-c-and-mtn-financials-tell-different-sides-of-telecoms",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-24T21:04:16.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Daily Maverick",
    "slug": "daily-maverick",
    "url": "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-24-cell-c-and-mtn-financials-tell-different-sides-of-telecoms-evolution-story/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Cell C and MTN recently released their financial reports, painting a contrasting picture of the telecoms industry's evolution. Cell C's CEO, Jorge Mendes, expressed satisfaction with their maiden annual results as a standalone company, noting a 57.4% jump in headline earnings based on IFRS EBITDA. However, CFO El Kope quickly clarified that \"all these one-offs that then happen in the year affect your net reported number.\" Management presented a more cautious H2 FY26 normalised standalone view, with earnings at R2.381-million.\n\nCell C had initially projected R1.5-billion to R1.8-billion in cash reserves per year but fell short, partially due to debt repayments. The company spent over R230-million on listing costs and offered significant discounts to retail agents selling their airtime. MTN's CFO highlighted that the mobile termination rates are tricky, as Cell C is currently a net payer, but future changes in traffic patterns could neutralize these revenues and costs.\n\nThe government's new End-User Subscriber Charter will restrict networks from selling short-term data bundles and force data rollover, reducing out-of-bundle revenues and margins. Despite this, MTN reported a 4% decrease in traditional voice call traffic, while internet data traffic surged by 47%. Both networks are shifting focus towards active, paying customers, abandoning the practice of giving out numerous inexpensive SIM cards.\n\nMTN's prepaid division experienced a 3.3% revenue decline but managed to improve their in-month payback rate to 70% by tightening airtime services and cutting borrowed airtime. Cell C supports these regulatory cleanups, aiming to combat inactive SIM cards, estimated at up to 10 million monthly. Both networks are competing fiercely for virtual network operator (MVNO) customers, with Cell C currently controlling over 80% of the market.",
  "summary": "CEO Jorge Mendes was all smiles on Cell C’s maiden annual results call as a standalone company listed on the JSE, but the press statement may have been a little too optimistic.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}