South African Pay-TV giant, Multichoice Group, has confirmed the write-off of N31.6 billion ($21 million) in deposits held with Heritage Bank following its abrupt liquidation.

This significant financial blow was disclosed in Multichoice’s earnings report for the half-year ending September 30, 2024.

Multichoice had previously reported having a total of N33.7 billion deposited with Heritage Bank in its FY 2024 annual report, released in June.

This amount reflected the bank’s position as of March 31, 2024, the end of Multichoice’s fiscal year. However, between the fiscal year-end and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) revocation of Heritage Bank’s license on June 3, 2024, the balance reduced slightly to N31.6 billion due to remittances made prior to the bank’s collapse.

The liquidation of Heritage Bank came after the CBN withdrew its banking license, prompting the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to take over as liquidator.

In light of this, Multichoice wrote off its receivables related to the cash held with the now-defunct bank, which contributed to its $21 million operating losses for the period under review.

The economic situation in Nigeria has further compounded Multichoice’s financial woes.

Despite these adversities, the Group managed to repatriate USD65 million from its Nigerian operations in the first half of FY 2025, compared to USD91 million during the same period in the previous fiscal year.

This repatriation was executed at an average exchange rate of NGN1,516 to the dollar, considerably weaker than the NGN794 to the dollar seen in the first half of FY 2024.

The depreciation led to extraction losses of USD1 million (approximately ZAR20 million), a significant decrease from the USD28 million (ZAR518 million) recorded in the previous year.

At the close of the reporting period, Multichoice held USD11 million in cash reserves in Nigeria, a sharp decline from the USD39 million reported at the end of FY 2024.