Leading Senegalese telecom services provider, Societe Nationale des Telecommunications du Senegal (Sonatel), has recorded a CFA39.5-billion ($68.4 million) drop in its market capitalization in November.
Sonatel is a leading subregional telecom services provider operating in Africa as a subsidiary of Orange S.A., a French multinational telecom corporation.
The Senegal-based telecom group maintains active operations in Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone under the leadership of Senegalese businessman Alioune Ndiaye, the first African to lead an Orange subsidiary.
The decline in its market capitalization on the Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres — a regional stock exchange for countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo — can be linked to the performance of its shares.
As of press time, Nov. 30, shares in the Senegalese telecom service provider were worth CFA13,705 ($23.73), four basis points lower than their opening price on the regional bourse this morning.
Since the start of November, the company’s share price has fallen from CFA14,100 ($24.41) to CFA13,705 ($23.73), accruing a 2.8-percent loss, or CFA395 ($0.684), for shareholders.
As a result of the decline in its stock price, Sonatel’s market capitalization slumped from a valuation of CFA1.41 trillion ($2.44 billion) on Nov. 1 to CFA1.37 trillion ($2.37 billion) as of the time of writing.
This translates to a market-value loss of CFA39.5 billion ($68.4 million) for subregional telecom services provider in November.
In November, the decline in its market capitalization retraced a fraction of its gains in October, when its market capitalization surged by more than $100 million from $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion.
In the first nine months of 2021, Sonatel recorded a 10-percent surge in revenue to CFA984.5 billion ($1.7 billion), which spurred its pre-tax and interest earnings by 13.2 percent to CFA430.3 billion ($743.9 million).
The growth in its revenue and earnings in the period under review was spurred by a 9.5-percent growth in its customer base from 34.9 million in 2020 to 38.2 million as of Sept. 30.
