MTN Group Limited ($MTN)

Good day, everybody, and thank you for joining us to discuss the MTN Group trading update for the 3 months ended March 2026. My name is Roy Mutooni. I'm Head of Group Investor Relations for MTN. On the call with me is Ralph Mupita, our Group President and CEO; and Tsholofelo Molefe, our Group CFO. Our trading update was published this morning on the JSE and is posted on our website on the Investor Relations page. We also released the pro forma financial information for FY 2025 related to the AHS transaction that remains in progress. You would also have seen the Q1 releases from our listed OpCos over the past few weeks. And I trust that you are able to join the [indiscernible] investor calls. The running agenda for the call will be as usual. Ralph will start with an overview of the operational performance. He will be followed by Tsholo with a review of our financial performance. Ralph will then come back to wrap up with key focus areas and the outlook. We will then move into Q&A. I encourage you to use the webcast platform to send through your questions, which I will then read out at the end. Finally, a reminder that the call is scheduled for about an hour. With that, I'd like to hand over to Ralph Mupita.

Thank you, Roy, and a very good afternoon or morning to you all, depending on new location. Let's get straight to the results delivered in the period. In Q2 2026, the group delivered a strong start to our Ambition 2030 strategy against an uncertain global geopolitical environments, but fairly benign economic backdrop in key markets. The group reported both service revenue growth, EBITDA margin expansion and the strengthened balance sheet, underpinned by execution of our commercial and strategic priorities and disciplined capital allocation. We deployed CapEx of ZAR 9.6 billion over this quarter. Before I get into the details, let me outline the 6 key messages of our performance in the period. The first point is that we are pleased with the sustained commercial momentum delivered in the quarter. This was by our businesses in Nigeria, Ghana as well as Cote d'Ivoire Cameron, in particular. Performance in markets such as Ambua was also very encouraging. The second highlight is that as a group, we continue to see pleasing growth in our data and fintech businesses, which showed 35.4% and 20% revenue growth, respectively. Underlying the revenue trends, data traffic was up 20.2% and value of fintech transactions rose by 1/3 to $163 billion in constant currency terms. Thirdly, group service revenue grew by 21.1% and the EBITDA margin widened to 47.6%. Both these are in constant currency terms. Fourth, our balance sheet remains strong with group leverage at 0.2x and holdco liquidity [indiscernible] of ZAR 42.6 billion. We also saw good cash upstreaming in the period as well as post the period and Tsholo will cover the details on this a little bit later. The fifth point is that we made good progress in our strategic initiatives in our fintech business, is notably the completion of the structural separation in Ghana, the largest print market, as well as progress in Nigeria, continue to engage the authorities in Uganda towards the completion of the separation in that market. We also advanced the progress of the IHS transaction engaging regulatory authorities as part of the approval process. And as you can see in our separate SENS announcement, the pro forma results for 2025 showed that the transaction is value accretive in terms of service revenue, earnings and free cash flow. The sixth key message is that in the uncertain geopolitical environment, we remain focused on the resilience of our business. We remain highly engaged with partners such as IHS on diesel supply to ensure that we meet our customary high levels of network availability. In terms of our overall performance, strong commercial execution underpinned our sustained growth in the quarter. Overall subscribers grew 5.4% year-on-year, outpaced by growth in the number of take subscribers, which increased by 8.7% to 175.6 million. Our MoMo users also grew by more than 8% to 67.4 million, frankly active users. Strong structural demand for data continued with a number of petabytes consumed on our network increasing by 20.2%. Our fintech platform processed 15.8% more transactions in the first quarter of 2026 than in the same period in 2025. And the value of these was up by 32.8% in constant currency terms. On a reported basis, transaction values was up 71% to $163 billion in the quarter. If we turn to our key markets, we see that MTN SA reported solid growth in postpaid, enterprise and data revenue. We were encouraged by the above inflation performance of both postpaid and enterprise segments in SA and by the 4.9% growth in data revenue. The prepaid market continued to be tough in Q1 as expected and previously communicated. Deliberate actions were taken by management to reset base for healthier and much more sustainable growth over the medium term. This resulted in the overall MTN South Africa sales revenue increasing by 0.7%. MTN SA reduced its penetration on extra time advances as a percentage of recharges during the period. They have reduced penetration from around 42% to about 34% as of the end of the period. This was done to ensure sustainable advances to customers in order to drive repayment of advances within the month and not to overexpose customers to the impacts of recovery. It is also consistent with what we told the market with our annual results in March. We are working on initiatives to turn this prepaid business around and drive more sustainable growth, but it's not a quick fix. The other deliberate actions that we took and spoke about before, or the simplification of bundles, and sales and distribution initiatives. We feel encouraged by some of the early trends in cash recharges as well as prepaid data that are coming through as a consequence of these deliberate actions. Prepaid data grew 3.8% year-on-year in the first quarter, a solid sequential improvement on Q4 2025, which was a growth of 0.8%. And MTN SA's network leadership remains a clear differentiator in the market and provides a strong platform to support customer experience, retention and disciplined commercial delivery. MTN Nigeria reported a strong set of results at the end of April, in line with the medium-term guidance. They grew service revenue by 41.7% in constant currency. This was led by data revenue, which increased by 56.1% and fintech grew by 77.8%. The sustained strong commercial momentum, disciplined cost management and accelerated network investment translated into robust demand for a solid financial performance for this business. Towards the end of period, we saw elevated geopolitical tensions drive energy prices higher, leading to fare of renewed inflationary pressures over the short to medium term. However, this was partly mitigated by the stronger naira. In a more supportive macroeconomic environment led by a sharp slowdown in inflation, MTN Ghana, reported strong service revenue growth of 35.7% and again, data revenue led the overall results growing by 52.3% as debt traffic increased by 63.4%. Moving on to Fintech. We saw service revenue increased by 20.1%. we continue to scale this business and are pleased with the progress we're making with our Mastercard commercial partnerships. We now have almost 700,000 virtual cards in use across the key markets. As promised, with the release of our FY 2025 final results, today, we issued a voluntary 2025 pro forma financial effects of the IHS transaction, which we announced in February. The regulatory process to finalize the transaction are ongoing, and we'll provide updates as and when these are warranted. The pro forma financial effects show that the transaction is value accretive in terms of revenue profit after tax, adjusted headline earnings per share as well as free cash flow. Subject to approvals, we anticipate that the transaction should close in the second half of the year. With that, let me pass on to Tsholo, who will provide an overview of our financial performance. Tsholo?

Thank you very much, Ralph, and good afternoon to everyone. It is my pleasure to walk you through the financial review of our performance in the first 3 months of the year. We are really pleased to present a strong set of financial results. These have been delivered against the backdrop of improved conditions and good execution by the various teams across the MTN footprint. In terms of the overall performance, group service revenue grew by 21.1% in constant currency, and the EBITDA margin widened by 3 percentage points to 47.6%. This was led by strong EBITDA growth in 4 West African markets, in particular, this being Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire as well as Cameron. As we work to deliver on our [indiscernible] of leading solutions for Africa's progress, we continue to invest to sustain the quality, the coverage and capacity of our networks and to ensure that our and to ensure that ours are the platforms of choice for consumers, homes and businesses. Total capital expenditure invested in the period reached ZAR 9.6 billion. This translated into CapEx intensity of 16.4%, which is within our target range of 15% to 18%, and in line with levels in prior periods. The balance sheet remained resilient with group leverage of 0.2x and holding company liquidity headroom of ZAR 42.6 billion. In the first 3 months of this year, the OpCos upstreamed a total of ZAR 2.3 billion in cash to the group. And importantly, since the quarter end, the group has received another ZAR 5.3 billion in cash from China as well as ZAR 2.7 billion from Nigeria. MTN's strong financial performance in the first quarter was again driven by data revenue, which increased by 35.4%. Voice is not on the slide, but you would have seen from the SENS that we continue to grow revenue from our Voice business, reporting Voice revenue growth in constant currency of 4.7%. In our Fintech platform, we reported top line growth of 20%, which is in line with indications given at our annual results in March. Advanced services revenue continued to grow strongly and in line with our strategy, it was up 36.7% in the quarter. We continue to focus on growing Fintech revenue from advanced services as we've indicated, and this remains strong in the quarter. The growth -- the group EBITDA margin in constant currency for the 3 months expanded by 3 percentage points to 47.6%, supported by our various expense efficiency initiatives. Turning now to the performance of our major subsidiaries. In the first quarter, you'll see that MTN SA service revenue was up by 0.7%. Ralph explained the reasons for this, which are mainly competitive pressure in prepaid, coupled with the deliberate actions taken by management to make this segment more sustainable. MTN SA's EBITDA margin was 4.1 percentage points lower at 32.6%. If we exclude the impact of the provision for share price plan, the EBITDA margin was 2.7 percentage points lower at 35.4%. Touching on MTN Nigeria's performance, which was in line with medium-term guidance. Service revenue grew by a strong 41.7%, moderated by the base effects of the price adjustments that were implemented from the middle of quarter 1 of 2025. Strong commercial momentum combined with operational discipline, cap operating expenses well contained in Nigeria, delivering meaningful operating leverage. The EBITDA margin, therefore, widened to 55.3%, by 8.7 percentage points. MTM Ghana continued with its disciplined execution of strategic priorities, driving strong top line momentum. Service revenue increased by 35.7%, driven largely by a 29% increase as well in Fintech, combined with a tight cost control, the sustained top line growth translated into EBITDA growth of 2.9% and a 3.1 percentage point expansion on EBITDA margin to 61.2%. Now on to our market -- the rest of our markets portfolio, who continue to perform well. As you can see from this slide, we are now reporting according to our new operating structure this group's MTN operations into the Southern and East Africa region and as well as the Francophone Africa region. In the first quarter, MTN operations in our Southern East Africa region grew service revenue by 19% ahead of average blended inflation of 18.1% and driven by double-digit gains in data, voice as well as fintech. The overall margin was slightly softer at 44.3% versus a year earlier. Within this region, MTN Uganda's performance was hampered by Internet shutdown during the general elections that took place in January of this year. Service revenue grew by 7.6%. However, normalizing for the impact of the election shutdown, service revenue growth would have increased by 11.5%. The performance was also impacted by changes to our termination rates by the Uganda Communication Commission in the period. In the Francophone Africa region, MTN, of course, delivered this revenue growth of 8.7% in which was also well ahead of the region's blended average inflation rate of 2.3%. EBITDA for the region continued to grow with the margin expanding to the 7.5%, which was up 3.8 percentage points. In this slide, we call out again Cameron within the Francophone, where service revenue grew by 14.4% and the EBITDA margin widening to 44.2%. with that, I will hand over back Ralph to give our outlook and priorities for the rest of the year. Thank you, Ralph.

Thank you, Tsholo. And I'll now turn to our outlook and priorities. You'll have seen these key areas at our annual results, and we remain focused on following through with these in the next 7 months of the year. Firstly, in an uncertain global environment, we are focused on maintaining the resilience of our business. The focus for us is on ensuring diesel availability, and we are comfortable with the risk mitigation actions taken by tower companies on availability. As an example, IHS in Nigeria secured additional supply increasing the reserves from 2 months' cover to 3 months' cover. So in Nigeria, over the next period ahead, we feel pretty comfortable with the supply in terms of diesel. Secondly, we aim to sustain the commercial momentum across all our markets, allocating capital to opportunities with clear growth and return visibility. The third point here is, to deliver a recovery in MTN South Africa's prepaid business performance. We have been encouraged with the near-term trends we're seeing in prepaid cash recharges as well as prepaid data trends, whilst the decline in voice continues as expected. Next, and this is the fourth focus area, which comes to commercial and strategic priorities for our Fintech business. We're focusing on progressing with the structural separations in Nigeria. We had the shareholder vote in a few weeks back. Ugandan and other markets, post the conclusion for Ghana. The fifth and final bullet here concerns the completion of the IHS transaction, which are progressing with regulatory filings and anticipate the transactions to close in H2 2026. Finally, we have maintained our mid-term guidance, which reflects our growth ambition and investment case over the medium term. As we said in March, we expect MTN SA to track at the lower end of the medium-term ranges for this calendar year. For Nigeria, we have reiterated guidance and [indiscernible] sensitivity to diesel price movements where the business released results at the end of April 2026. We also expect Fintech to track slightly below the guidance range for a few quarters as we manage the competitive and pricing pressures coming through in some markets such as Cameron and Uganda. We are comfortable with the leverage and liquidity position of the business. With that, thank you very much. And let me hand over to Roy to direct the Q&A.

Thanks, Ralph. We received a number of questions, and I'll try and bundle them interrelevant groups. The first one is, we are getting -- on South Africa, we are getting mixed signals from you and your closest peer in the challenging environment with MTN seemingly more bearish. Can you help us understand what you're actually seeing on the ground in terms of the consumer and competition and from MVNOs? Why do you think the such a discrepancy with you and your peer? That's the first question. And then the second question that keeps recurring is around diesel costs and energy costs. So first of all, how much of your OpEx across the group is linked to the diesel and fuel cost? And just related to that, what is SA's and MTN Group's EBITDA sensitivity to a 10% or 20% increase in diesel prices? If we started with those.

Tsholo, can you pick up the one on diesel costs? And then let me start with the one on the SA consumer view.

Yes.

So on say consumer, I mean obviously that the consumer is in not too bad a shape as we exited the quarter. And obviously, with diesel petrol prices going up, I think there's going to be a pickup on inflation. I think all the inflation indicators are that inflation will pick up, and then there will be second order effects potentially around there was a [indiscernible] inflation. So the consumer is not in too bad a shape relative to public people's expectation. What we are seeing though is that part of the consumer wallet is being taken up by online betting. And I think enough commentary and reports are out there around that. So in terms of disposable income, I mean, the fight for disposable linked income will certainly be impacted. I think where there may be differences, will come to the actions that we are taking on prepaid. I would like to pull back on the exposure of consumers to the use of extra time. We think that there is a healthy level of extra time in the base directed at the right customer base. And we believe that we should implement full recovery of the [ airtime ] advanced. I don't think there is a consistent approach in the market around full recovery. Our understanding is we're probably the only business that's doing full recovery on extra time. But as we've looked at the base, we think that is the right thing to do, is to kind of pull back, which obviously hurts in the near term, and we anticipate Q1 and Q2 will still be tough as we do that. But we're seeing healthy growth on cash recharges, which is giving us confidence that the actions are the right one for sustainability. And prepaid data, the sequential progress we're seeing quarter-on-quarter is also helping. We are also making changes around distribution, increasing much more bank-direct recharge. And also that's got some short-term pay, which we're going to do. So to that question, I think you've got to think through how we are approaching the prepaid market relative to peers. And as I said, the big trend for us is that we are looking for full recovery of prepaid within the month as opposed to having these almost in [indiscernible] as kind of rolling debts. And so that's been our approach. Tsholo, do you want to talk to the point around cost sensitivity?

Yes. Thanks, Ralph. I mean if we look at it within the context of OpEx intensity, I think if you just take diesel only, it's probably between 10% and 15%. Total energy, if we include electricity, would probably be between 15% and 20% as a percentage of group OpEx. I think, from a sensitivity perspective, and obviously something that we are seized with as a company, how we think about it is that 10% change in energy cost would probably have an impact of between 0.4 percentage and 0.7 percentage point impact on our EBITDA margin. South Africa is relatively insignificant. I think most of you will have been on the Nigeria call and you would have had that Nigeria is the largest within the group in terms of those costs.

Thanks, Tsholo. The next question, just sticking to the diesel question. Apart from Nigeria, which are the markets where would you expect an impact on margins from higher oil price?

Yes, I was going to say that there are probably 2 others, which would be Cameron, because partner network relies on diesel, and then Zambia, in particular. The other markets, I think, are less -- are kind of more resilient. So it's more Cameron and Zambia to be specific.

Okay. Just going back to the prepaid question. On SA, how much of your prepaid revenue is driven by extra time? And then also, it's interesting that you're reducing your reliance on extra time when the consumer is under pressure. What are you seeing that your peers are not seeing? And how is the cash recharge momentum over April [indiscernible]?

Yes. I mean I think what we said is that extra time is probably currently around [ 34% ]. Yes. So I mean, it's come down given the interventions that we are making. Sorry, what was the second question?

How is the cash recharge momentum over April and May?

Yes. I mean we obviously have seen an improvement, which was really the intention in the first quarter of the financial year, and we expect that to improve further. So I think we will provide you with details as we do H1. But we're comfortable that we've seen an improvement since we las spoke to you in December.

And just sticking to that theme, can management provide some color as to whether the trend of declining extra-time advances is occurring beyond SA and Nigeria? That -- is there a broader trend to return to cash top-ups across the markets?

Yes. I mean maybe just to top and tell in sort of the prior question, I think there was also a question around why would you pull back right now where the consumer is under pressure. I mean I think my overall comments was that the consumer is fairly resilient, not in a fantastic shape. And right now, not so much under pressure. We can debate how much inflation will spike as a consequence of diesel and fuel prices. I mean, we're just looking at this thing with the view of the medium to long term. To say recharge behavior should not be as dependent on extra time. We think that's much healthier. And as we look to markets elsewhere, in emerging markets, we see almost -- in some markets, there is an absence of in-time advance, even though consumers have the equivalent disposal or trends. You look at India, you won't see such a product. So I mean, we have to do this responsibly. We just think that, that is the right thing to do, is to have somewhere around 1/3 -- sorry, somewhere around 30% or thereabouts is probably the right number. So we're moving towards that level across our base. The question is, are we seeing it in other markets? I mean, I think our view is when across our markets would be that we want a healthy level of the customer base exposed to airtime advances. Markets all differ -- but I think a thematic in the trend, we think that's the right place for us to be. And I think we've got actions in other markets as well. And we feel that that's directionally the right place. It's not at the [ 0], but certainly bringing it back a little bit to drive more cash recharges.

Okay. Then on upstreaming, your cash upstream from the OpCo has been around ZAR 11 billion as opposed to ZAR.4 billion for the whole of last year, suggesting very strong momentum. What's your outlook for the rest of the year? Should you expect the full year number to grow in line with operating free cash flow?

Yes. I mean, I think if you think of it, and we've just reported now that post the quarter end, we've received additional upstreaming from Ghana and Nigeria. I think in line with what we communicated at our year-end results, we do expect our cash upstreaming to obviously improve, particularly because Nigeria now is fully declaring dividends. we've seen an improvement, of course, due to performance as well in Ghana. I think if you think about it, our dividends in those markets are based on a percentage of distributable earnings. And then the rest of the market as we see an improvement in performance, we then expect to see improved cash upstreaming.

And then just shifting to Fintech. Given how strong Airtel Africa stock is doing ahead of its normal IPO, would you consider a listing as well? And how would you rate your mobile business in Africa as compared to competition?

I mean, on the second part, obviously, we would rate our business as strong and resilient and with good run rate growth over the medium term. So that would be our position. I think you would assume that would say that. In terms of the IPO, and I think we've said this before, is that where our focus is on, is growing the ecosystem as quickly as we can, as sustainably as we can. That's our priority. And drive as quickly as we can to shift towards advanced services. I think you'll have seen in our results very good strong growth. When you look at a vertical like [indiscernible], which we've said over time is super critical. So we focused on that. We focused on ensuring we have the right licenses. We're looking at what license regimes we need for the long term, and we will discuss that more at CMD. So for us, it's all about capturing the growth and as sustainably as we can. The IPO in of itself for us is not necessarily something we're driving towards. I think, in years to come, that may be something we look at, but we're not -- there isn't a deadline we're working to. And I don't think you should anticipate an IPO from MTN in the near term, certainly not in the next 2 to 3 years. Our focus is just grow the business sustainably. And I think you will hear at the CMD quite a lot for Tsholo and myself around the work we're doing around the platform, the partnership with Mastercard, the progress we made on structural separation and how do we get growth at the level of our guidance and above in terms of both service revenue and expanding margins. So the issue of the IPO near term for us is not something that is front and center.

Okay. Your reported EBITDA margin of 47% is a multiyear high. Do you think this is a [indiscernible]?

Yes. I mean, we're...

Go ahead, Tsholo.

We're confident that we can sustain the margin. If you think about the various operating companies, how they are performing, we're confident with the work that we're doing in South Africa over the medium term. We believe that they will recover into the 35% to 37% EBITDA margin corridor. And we continuously look at our spend, what we need to do from a cost discipline perspective. So an efficiency program continues, and that's where we get our comfort from.

Okay. And just moving back to Ralph. There was significant improvement in the Cote d'Ivoire margin. Maybe if you could give some color as to what the drivers to this margin expansion were?

Yes. I think we're pleased with the overall competitiveness of the business. The business was struggling for some time, to be frank. And on the productivity business, we did up the level of CapEx in second half of last year. And we've sustained the kind of growth, adding new sites particularly in and around the areas [ Avigen ] and so forth. So we've seen a pullback of market share, particularly around the #1 in the market being [indiscernible] there. So we think we can sustain the growth and that turnaround has been pleasing. We still have some work to do, really around the Fintech business there. But as we've looked at sequential quarter-on-quarter, the CapEx we put down, the closing of total site count to a range, that's helped and sustain the level of growth that we've seen. So -- and that's why we made a call out particularly on Cote d'Ivoire. I mean it's an economy that size of -- we say to our teams, it's an economy size of Ghana but it's generating a 1/4 of the revenue. So there must be some ups in Cote d'Ivoir going forward. But I think you'll see us allocating capital to Cote d'Ivoire to sustain the pleasing growth that we're seeing there.

Okay. Back to Tsholo, any update on the buyback plans? And along the same lens, any -- please provide color on the higher bad debts in SA EBU? Will this exists for the next few quarters?

Yes. I think, on the last question on the EBU. I mean it is an ongoing effort to try and reduce. And I think the first thing that we do, obviously, make sure that we have the right credit management policies in place. I think we have a policy, obviously, where customers don't pay that we cut off after various interventions after looking at payment plans. So we had a robust process in place. So again, with enterprise, it's mainly 1 or 2 government customers where, obviously, we are struggling but we -- there's ongoing effort to make sure that we can recover. So I think that's on the first one. I think as we've indicated in South Africa specifically, there are other interventions we're looking at to try and manage the working capital to acceptable levels. So that's the first one. The second question?

Buyback.

On the buyback, Yes. I mean I think, obviously, as we indicated, we will continue to look at opportunity for buyback where it given the criteria that we have given as well. So we will provide you with additional update in our H1 results or even at the Capital Markets Day that is coming.

Yes. Just sticking with Tsholo. Because of the charge, the share-based payment charge in MTN SA, at current share prices and additional provisions, would you expect margins to remain within the medium terms guidance for the balance of the year?

Yes. So I mean, I think how we look at it, we do think that because it's driven by the share price movement of [indiscernible], the right thing to do is obviously to adjust for it. But so if you normalize for that, we're comfortable that we'll still be within the 35% to 37%. Obviously, with the interventions that we're looking at to recover prepaid, the cost interventions, we take comfort that we will see an improvement in margins in SA.

And just sticking with you for on CapEx, CapEx intensity. Do you think you'll maintain this run rate for the rest of the year? Or do you see -- do you feel that the CapEx that was announced now had an element of front-loading?

Yes. So I mean it's a mixed bag of OpCo-by-OpCo. We obviously look at, as Ralph indicated, what we're doing in Cote d'Ivoir. So each OpCo is looked at in terms of their performance, ability to generate free cash and whether there's a need to front-load CapEx. In other markets, obviously, we will hold back depending on their performance. But take it that whatever guidance we've given for the year, we're comfortable that we will be within that CapEx intensity range. Some markets will be a hit like Nigeria, where we see exponential growth, Ghana, for instance. But we're also mindful of the -- obviously, the global impact, and we continue to monitor that very closely in terms of how we deploy capital, yes.

Okay. Moving back to Ralph. From Iran, it was encouraging to see quarter-on-quarter growth in subs and ARPU despite the conflict in the country. Is this because you had a good Jan and Feb? What was the impact in March? And where are we now in April and May?

Yes. Look, I mean, as is noted, there's ongoing conflict and the Internet -- the global Internet, let's call it, that has been shut down or is not -- there's a bit of white listing in the market to access the global Internet. There is a local Internet that's there. I don't think one should read kind of too much into the trends. I mean what we normally find is that there is a situation where there is increased activity on the network, election results or periods of uncertainty, people end up talking a lot or communicating more than they normally do. So I would ascribe the trend that you're making reference to, to that more than anything else, election periods, times of strife, et cetera, people end up talking or using data or a lot more than as usual. Nothing more than that would be my comment on those trends and results that you're referencing.

And then just sticking with you, Ralph. On IHS, in the disclosure, we noted significant earnings accretion. Does this factor in any synergies that you previously talked about, such as listing cost, funding costs, diesel consumption? And then also, would leverage increase significantly once the IHS transaction closes?

Yes. I mean, with performance, as investors would know that there's a very strict requirements around what you disclosed. So I think when the first page of performance is just the results as reported for FY 2025. So it's not to be -- we're not putting that out for you to think about guiding on an ongoing basis. But specific to the questions, one is, there are no synergies in those numbers. We believe that they are meaningful synergies, but there are no synergies in the numbers that we disclosed because that would be kind of forward-looking, but there's none of that. And I think Tsholo previously raised that we're going to have to raise about $1.1 billion, and we are on track with that, $1.1 billion worth of debt. So we will take up the 0.2x group leverage will increase. And I think on a pro forma basis, you see it's there at 0.8x -- 0.7x, 0.8x pro forma. So it will increase. It will come back into range over a very short period of time, because of the earnings generated and internalized from holding 100% or a controlling stake in IHS.

And then just sticking with you, Ralph. Have you seen any impact from the free voice offer from [ Capitec ] so far?

I think that is very early. I mean, they announced it. It's for their base and the subscribers that they have. So it's early to attribute any impact that we're seeing. But certainly, we'll continue to monitor. And yes, what happens in Q2 going forward and report accordingly, if we think that there's been an impact our H1 results.

That's all the questions we've received so far. So maybe I'll hand over back to Ralph for closing comments.

Yes. Thanks very much and for taking the time to join on this earnings call. I think as you will appreciate that we're very focused on ensuring the resilience of the business big priority area is really around diesel availability and ensuring. And I think you should take comfort from our comments that we're on top of this, and we are talking to IHS and related in ensuring that availability is an issue, is not an issue. Obviously, diesel prices are a function of market prices. And so we'll manage that. And I think we've clearly communicated the sensitivity, particularly to Nigeria. Nigeria is not sensitive, but as I mentioned, that there is -- sorry, Cameron and Zambia that one would look at and sort of gave you kind of the overall sensitivity for the group. We have expense efficiency actions to mitigate. So when there are pressures at the OpEx level, we do look to accelerate some of those expense efficiencies delay, some more discretionary spend. The other issue we are focused on is resilience on key components, SIM cards, server equipment, anything with chipsets. We're managing so that we don't have any disruptions and ensuring business continuity. So that is an area of focus for us. And then continuing with the momentum and execution of our commercial strategies, executing on IHS, on the fintech side and making sure that we deliver in line with our commitments in terms of our medium-term guidance. And then finally, we hope to see all of you, if not most of you, for our Capital Markets Day, which will be in -- held in Johannesburg, 10th and the 11th as format day 1 where there's presentations and then day 2, we've created a platform for investors to spend time with the SAT in Nigeria, Ghana, Markets; and then Tsholo and myself for more strategy and capital allocation. So we look forward to you joining us there. And yes, I think for those who are making the trip, it will be a trip worth making to engage with Tsholo, myself and the senior leadership team at the MTN Group. So thanks for joining us again. Back to you, Roy.

There are no more questions from the conference call. With that, I would like to bring this call to an end. Thank you for spending this time with us. If you have any questions, please send them into the Investor Relations in box. We'll be happy to follow up from here.