MTN the largest African Network is going through their Moaning period, this is not really a nice time for MTN. A latest report says that MTN Group has reported its first-ever per-share loss as a public company, after Africa’s biggest mobile-phone operator agreed to settle a record fine in Nigeria and weaker earnings in South Africa.
Bloomberg reports that the loss will be between 2.85 rand and 3.15 rand per share in the six months through June.
The biggest contributor to the decline was the penalty Nigeria slammed on MTN after the company missed a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers.
“This is a once-off and expectations are that they will recover in the next year.”
The shares fell as much as 4.3 percent in early trading in Johannesburg, the most since June 27, and recovered to trade 0.1 percent higher at 132.70 rand as of 10:24 a.m. local time.
The stock lost as much as a third of its value after the fine was levied in October and is still 30 percent below its level when the penalty was announced.
“We believe in supporting the positive transformation of Nigeria and we have demonstrated this belief through the level of our investment since 2001, which currently stands at approximately $16 billion.
