MTN Group unveiled plans to cash-in on its infrastructure assets and financial services platforms after separating the divisions from the rest of the business, as it continues efforts to restructure its operations and cut debt.

In its Q4 results statement, the operator group provided outline details of its Ambition 2025 project, which is the result of a strategic review into the company and follows moves during 2020 to sell various non-core assets.

“As part of this strategic repositioning, we are looking to structurally separate our infrastructure assets and platforms, such as fintech, to reveal value and attract third-party capital and partnerships into these businesses, over the medium-term,” president and CEO Ralph Mupita said.

The company added it planned to invest ZAR29.1 billion ($1.9 billion) in its network, financial technology and digital services platforms to support the move.

Its decision to restructure the non-telecoms segments of the business come alongside continued efforts to sell-up in markets in the Middle East to focus on being a “pan-African” operator.

Full details on its new strategy are set to be revealed at its Capital Markets Day in June.

Profit increase
As flagged by MTN last month, it booked a jump in annual net profit of ZAR17 billion in 2020, up from ZAR9.1 billion in 2019. Revenue increased 17.2 per cent to ZAR176 billion partly driven by currency gains and results from its operations in Nigeria and Ghana.

The company cut its net debt by ZAR12 billion to leave it owing ZAR43 billion by the end of 2020.

In an effort to cut this further the company said it would focus on making planned “larger transactions” which were not completed in 2020, and suspended its final shareholder dividend for the year.

The company does not breakdown full profit and revenue figures on a quarterly basis.