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Axian Telecom took $980 million in revenue over the first six months of the year, up 26.5%, while its quarterly profit went the other way.
Net profit for the second quarter fell to $33.2 million from $46.8 million a year earlier, a drop of 29%. The company attributed it to adverse fair value movements on its investments, among them the e-commerce group Jumia Technologies, and to losses at Wananchi, the East African internet provider it absorbed last year.
The operating business is not the problem. Second-quarter revenue reached $503.4 million against $401.2 million, a rise of 25.5%, and half-year revenue climbed from $774.9 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 19.4% to $203.5 million in the quarter and reached $398.7 million across the half.
Customer numbers grew across every line the company reports. Revenue-generating subscribers reached 45.5 million at June 30, up 9.3%. Active data users rose 14.2% to 15.8 million. Active mobile financial services users rose 18.8% to 19 million, the fastest-growing of the three, which matters because mobile money carries better margins than voice.
The tower estate expanded to 5,210 owned sites and 3,756 shared, giving a tenancy ratio of 1.35 times.
Development finance institutions have been queuing up. Yas Holding drew down the full $100 million of a European Investment Bank facility on May 7 and signed a $160 million agreement with the African Development Bank eight days later. On July 9 it signed a €270 million facilities agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, earmarked for capital spending and network modernisation in Kenya and Senegal, in what the EBRD described as its first local-currency financing and its first A/B loan in sub-Saharan Africa.
Three institutions committing more than $560 million inside ten weeks is a strong signal on a group rated B+ by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch.
The company has also changed its name. Axian Telecom is now Yas Holding, and Telecom Malagasy has become Yas Madagascar, part of a consolidation around the Yas brand the group has been building across its markets. The corporate identity that carried the business out of Madagascar is being retired in favour of the consumer one.
Jumia is the outlier in the portfolio. Hassanein Hiridjee, who founded the group in 2003 and chairs it, has built Axian into Jumia's largest shareholder, and the online retailer's share price now feeds directly into the telecom group's reported earnings. A quarter in which the operating business grew 25.5% and the bottom line fell 29% is the first clear demonstration of what that exposure costs when the position moves the wrong way.
Wananchi is the other drag, and a more predictable one. Axian paid $63 million for 99.63% of it in October, acquiring the Zuku broadband and pay-television brand in Kenya and Simbanet in Tanzania. Newly integrated acquisitions usually lose money before they contribute, and the EBRD money is going into the Kenyan network the deal brought with it.
Group revenue for the whole of 2025 was $1.69 billion. Six months of 2026 has already delivered 58% of that.
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