MTN reaction to their results yesterday were what you would expect. I guess. But this is the one point that I wanted to get across. The Nigerian Naira weakened from about 118 Naira to the US Dollar to 150 last year. Decreased around 30 percent during the year. The Rand to the US Dollar firmed over thirty percent last year.
The Nigerian local unit revenue growth was thirty percent. But in Rand terms, there was a double whammy, the Rand strengthening to the Dollar and the Naira weakening to the Dollar. That is the one point that must be stressed. Notwithstanding that from a very important part of the business, overall sales grew around ten percent. An important point not stressed enough. Paul has written up a piece on MTN and the broader technology and telecoms space that we will mail out later. The price has sold off, so my sense is that short term folks might be disappointed. The company suggested that they could add 20 million subscribers this year to 136 million subscribers.