A weak rand has offset mobile operator MTN Group’s poor South African performance by helping to boost revenues from its international operations.

This is according to MTN group’s financial results for the year ended 31 December 2013.

MTN is South Africa’s second largest mobile operator with more than 25 million subscribers. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed company also operates in 22 African countries, Asia and the Middle East with a subscriber base of more than 207 million.

And according to a financial statement from MTN Group, its total revenue increased by 12% to R136,495 million for the 2013 financial year.

Data revenue increased 41.4% to R20,670 million and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 13% to R58,820 million.

However, despite the positive results in revenues, the mobile operator’s operations in its home market South Africa fell by 6.1% for the year ended 2013, says a statement from MTN.

MTN said the decline in revenue for its local operations was impacted by the "reviewed accounting treatment adjustment".

"Total revenue declined by 6.1% to R39 708 million. This was impacted by a R1,888 million adjustment made to revenue as a result of management reviewing the accounting treatment for handset sales," reads the statement from MTN.

However, Frost & Sullivan ICT research analyst Joanita Roos has explained that MTN South Africa’s revenues are likely to come under further pressure because of competition from smaller operators.

"The asymmetric mobile termination rates are expected to put increasing pressure on MTN’s margins in 2014," said Roos.

While the South African business delivered disappointing results, the executive team is focused on helping the group’s business deliver an improved overall performance in the year ahead, MTN has said.

The firm's international operations in regions such as Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Cameroon, Sudan and Zambia helped boost revenue results.

In 2013 MTN’s Nigeria operations added more subscribers to its network by 19,7% bringing the total number of subscribers to 56,8 million in that country, increasing the total revenue by 5.7%.

The telco does note that revenue growth was dampened by interconnect revenues, which declined by 23% following a 40% reduction in mobile termination rates at the beginning of the year and a lower effective tariff.

Frost & Sullivan’s Roos said, "The improved segmented offerings, better quality network and seasonal promotions supported the growth in the challenging market."

Meanwhile, East African operations in Uganda delivered strong performance and increased the subscriber base by 14.4% to 8.8 million, driven by strong acquisition promotions, segmented offerings and the continued success of MTN Zone.

Total revenue in Uganda increased by 17.9%.

The same can be said about West African nation Ghana where MTN's revenue increased by 13.%, supported by the 81.6% growth in data revenue. MTN said data revenue contributed 9.7% to that region's total revenue.

MTN Ghana has a total of 12,9 million subscribers.

The MTN group also grew its subscribers numbers, which increased by 9.8% to 207,8 million.

"Subscriber growth was supported by competitive segmented offerings and improved network quality and capacity in many markets," said the telecoms firm.