{"id":43649,"date":"2026-08-24T13:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43649"},"modified":"2026-08-24T13:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:17:28","slug":"sas-mtn-approves-375-million-share-buyback-after-profit-rise","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-mtn-approves-375-million-share-buyback-after-profit-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s MTN approves $375 million share buyback after profit rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>South African (SA) mobile operator MTN Group said on Monday its board had approved $375 million share buyback programme as it reported a 21.3% rise in half-year adjusted profit \u200band strong cash generation.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ralph Mupita told journalists the buyback programme would begin on \u200bMonday. MTN shares were up 4.61% at 201 Rand.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Africa&#8217;s biggest \u2060telecom operator, with more than 317 million customers across 19 markets, said adjusted headline earnings \u200bper share (HEPS) rose to 793 cents in the six months ended June 30 from 654 cents \u200ba year earlier.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Reported HEPS, however, fell 5.8%, non-cash impairment on its 49% stake in Irancell, reflecting Iran&#8217;s hyperinflation and the sharp depreciation of the rial. Foreign exchange losses in South Sudan \u200balso weighed on earnings.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The impairment comes as MTN seeks to exit Iran, its last remaining \u200boperation in a broader withdrawal from the Middle East.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The process has been complicated by United States sanctions, in \u200cplace since \u2060May 2018, which have also prevented the company from repatriating millions of R<span class=\"x_spanWithBackgroundColor\">and<\/span>\u00a0in trapped dividends, Mupita said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;With the sanctions in place, we can&#8217;t put any money in and we can&#8217;t take any money out. But if the situation did change in a way where there \u200bwas a removal of \u200bsanctions we would continue \u2060with executing our Middle East exit strategy,&#8221; he added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15418,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-43649","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"MTN boar approved $375 million share buyback programme","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43650,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43649\/revisions\/43650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}