Due to ongoing outages in South Africa and problems with foreign exchange in Nigeria, MultiChoice Group Ltd. announced its third consecutive semi-annual loss.
The largest pay-TV provider in Africa, MultiChoice, reported a net loss of 1.32 billion rand ($72.4 million) for the six months ended September 30 in a filing on Wednesday.
In mid-June, Nigeria devalued its currency by 40% as a result of allowing it to trade more freely against the US dollar. Due to the company’s forced revaluation of intergroup loans, foreign exchange losses were incurred. The company’s problems were exacerbated by a 5% drop in the number of active days per customer as a result of rolling blackouts in South Africa.
The company’s stock dropped as much as 3.6% to a record on Wednesday, although it closed the day down 0.6% in Johannesburg.
Following the success of a comparable product in Nigeria, MultiChoice intends to relaunch its Showmax streaming service in the second part of its fiscal year and introduce a sports betting service in South Africa.
