The Daily Update: 31 July

The latest updates from the JSE and NYSE over the past 24 hours.

South Africa

MTN Group Limited

• EPS is expected to increase by between 10% and 20%, representing an EPS of between 490 cents and 534 cents.
• The impact of currency devaluations and scrip dividend elections, including rand depreciation against the US dollar and the liberalization of forex rates in Nigeria, has influenced the Group's holding company leverage.

Telkom SA SOC Limited

• Group revenue increased by 3.8% to R10,668 million, driven by growth in new generation technologies.
• Group EBITDA declined by 4.2% to R2,235 million, primarily due to legacy revenue declines and higher costs.
• Mobile data traffic and subscribers increased by 25.1% and 6.9% year-on-year to 329 petabytes and 18.5 million subscribers, respectively.
• Mobile broadband customers grew by 8.9% to 11.7 million, comprising 63.2% of active mobile customers.
• Telkom faced challenging economic conditions, including rolling power outages, muted economic growth, inflationary pressures, and intense competition.
• The Group is investing in capital expenditure to improve mobile and fiber networks' resilience and reduce the impact of load shedding.

Argent Industrials Limited

• The company achieved strong auction revenues and pricing, including the highest-ever revenue earned from a Kagem emerald auction in June 2023.
• Total auction revenues amounted to USD 145 million, making it the third-highest half-year revenue in Gemfields' history.
• As of June 30, 2023, Gemfields had net cash of USD 62 million and auction receivables of USD 64 million, resulting in a strong financial position.
• Gemfields paid a USD 35 million dividend to shareholders in May 2023.

The U.S.

SoFi Earnings

• EPS of -$0.06 beating expectations of -$0.07.
• Revenue of $489M beating expectations of $473.4M.
• Sofi raised its full year 2023 guidance for adjusted net revenue to between $1.974-$2.034 billion, up from its prior guidance of $1.955 to $2.02 billion.

Walmart

• Walmart has paid around $1.4 Billion to buy out a large investor in Flipkart, further cementing its control of the Indian e-commerce giant.