TNM Plc, Malawi’s pioneering mobile telecoms operator expects to turn around its fortunes after recording strong performance in the first and second quarter of 2023, its Chief Financial Officer, Peter Kadzitche has projected.
While acknowledging 2022 as an extremely difficult year for the company due to macro-economic factors, Kadzitche says the forecast for 2023 looks much better.
“We are seeing strong growth in revenues. There are also many positive indicators in key business segments, especially mobile money, voice [GSM], and data,” he said.
The Chief Finance Officer said some of the positives include a return to 2017 profitability levels for most segments of the business.
“Based on the unaudited trading performance seen between March and May, we are confident of better profitability prospects by the end of 2023. TNM is a truly Malawian company that is now excelling,” he said.
In a related development, the share price of TNM Plc increased from K17.94 in April to K28.46 in May, a report by the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) shows, coinciding with positive developments around the company’s network improvements.
TNM Plc stock closed Wednesday at K28.46 and was one of the two top gainers the exchange said in its weekly report.
For TNM, the trajectory of recent positive developments includes appointment of new CEO Michel Hebert, which brought the pilot launch of the 5G network, significant improvements in 4G, revised pricing structures, new products such as Kapangolini bundles, all while maintaining a resilient and uninterrupted network services during the devastating tropical Cyclone Freddy.
In its monthly report for April, MSE says that while overall share volumes decreased by 28 pct and values fell by 12 pct across the local bourse, TNM Plc broke rank as one of the top performing stocks for April.
The report indicates that the TNM share price increased by 15.74% from K15.50 to K17.94 per share, and that the telco is amongst the top five capital gainers and volume pushers for April. According to the April report, TNM’s trading activity on the local bourse helped to boost the overall market’s capitalization by 7.68% month-to-month.
Following the recent launch of the 5G network platform, TNM’s shareholders under the Minority Shareholders Association of Malawi expressed optimism for improved prospects in the company’s performance going forward.
TNM invested an initial U$5 million (MWK5.2 billion) to launch the 5G pilot phase and for massive improvements in 4G.
The Minority Shareholders Association Secretary General Frank Harawa said in an interview the group welcomes the investment and looks forward to TNM taking commanding role in helping improve the country’s telecoms and ICT landscape.
“5G technologies support applications that will have great impact in our society in areas such as healthcare, education, and industry automation, among other benefits. Minority shareholders are excited, and look forward to a transformed TNM,” said Harawa.
The TNM Chief Executive Officer, Michel Hebert said at the 5G pilot launch that the service will deliver excellent end-user experiences as it offers higher internet speeds and completely eliminates congestion. TNM will rapidly expand 5G into new areas. TNM’s 5G will complement and enhance the network’s existing 2G, 3G and enhance 4G capacity and experience, he said.
“5G offers broader capacity and less latency to support multi-media content services such as online gaming, ultra-HD, virtual reality, IoT, mining and synchronization, among other user cases. TNM’s future is bright,” he said.
