In an interview with Bloomberg , Ralph Mupita, the financial director of MTN Group, revealed that the South African telecoms group intends to reduce its shares in its Nigerian subsidiary. The company which holds 79% of shares intends to sell 15%. This operation, which will be aimed at local investors, will bring MTN Group’s stake in MTN Nigeria to 64%, which has been present since last year on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).
The reduction in shares in MTN Nigeria is also part of the asset realization program (ARP), launched in March 2019 by MTN Group, whose objective is to reduce debt, simplify its portfolio, reduce risks, an improvement in its returns and the realization of a capital of at least 15 billion rand over three years.
Several operations have already been carried out by the group with this in mind, notably the sale of its interests in ATC Ghana to American Tower Corporation for 900 million rand, the sale of its stakes in the investment fund Amadeus and its associated stake in Travelstart, the sale of MTN Group’s 49% stake in Ghana Tower Interco BV and Uganda Tower Interco BV to AT Sher Netherlands Cooperatief UA
MTN Nigeria currently represents an indispensable market for the group. At the end of the financial year ended December 31, 2019, the financial performance of the subsidiary represented a contribution of 30.77% to the group’s income which amounted to 151.46 billion rand.