With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at IHS Holding Limited's (NYSE:IHS) future prospects. IHS Holding Limited, together with its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates shared communications infrastructure in Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America. With the latest financial year loss of US$2.0b and a trailing-twelve-month loss of US$2.3b, the US$1.2b market-cap company amplified its loss by moving further away from its breakeven target. The most pressing concern for investors is IHS Holding's path to profitability – when will it breakeven? Below we will provide a high-level summary of the industry analysts’ expectations for the company.

See our latest analysis for IHS Holding

According to the 7 industry analysts covering IHS Holding, the consensus is that breakeven is near. They expect the company to post a final loss in 2024, before turning a profit of US$86m in 2025. The company is therefore projected to breakeven around 12 months from now or less. We calculated the rate at which the company must grow to meet the consensus forecasts predicting breakeven within 12 months. It turns out an average annual growth rate of 87% is expected, which signals high confidence from analysts. If this rate turns out to be too aggressive, the company may become profitable much later than analysts predict.

Given this is a high-level overview, we won’t go into details of IHS Holding's upcoming projects, though, keep in mind that by and large a high growth rate is not out of the ordinary, particularly when a company is in a period of investment.

One thing we would like to bring into light with IHS Holding is it currently has negative equity on its balance sheet. Accounting methods used to deal with losses accumulated over time can cause this to occur. This is because liabilities are carried forward into the future until it cancels. Oftentimes, losses exist only on paper but other times, it can be a red flag.

Next Steps:

There are key fundamentals of IHS Holding which are not covered in this article, but we must stress again that this is merely a basic overview. For a more comprehensive look at IHS Holding, take a look at IHS Holding's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also compiled a list of key factors you should look at:

1. Valuation: What is IHS Holding worth today? Has the future growth potential already been factored into the price? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether IHS Holding is currently mispriced by the market.
2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on IHS Holding’s board and the CEO’s background.
3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.