MTN will recover: Vodacom CEO

·9 Nov 2015

Vodacom CEO, Shameel Joosub, says that the company will not get distracted by the woes of its biggest competitor, MTN.

The fortunes of the company heads of MTN and Vodacom could not have been more stark on Monday morning. Joosub delivered stellar interim results, while MTN pushed out a statement announcing that MTN chief executive, Sifiso Dabengwa, had decided to step down amid ‘unfortunate prevailing circumstances occurring at MTN Nigeria’.

“MTN is a strong company – it will come back,” said Joosub in a conference call on Monday, in which he highlighted a 7.8% rise in operating profit to R10.2 billion for the six months ended September 2015.

“They will recover from it,” Joosub said of MTN’s plight in Nigeria.

“They will negotiate a better settlement,” Vodacom’s chief said of a $5.2 billion (R71 billion) fine imposed on MTN Group by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) at the end of last month.

The fine relates to the timing of the disconnection of 5.1 million MTN Nigeria subscribers who were disconnected in August and September 2015 and is based on a fine of N200,000 for each unregistered subscriber.

The resignation of MTN group chief executive officer Sifiso Dabengwa is a “loss to the industry”, Joosub told News24. “I think Sifiso is a stalwart of the industry, and obviously he’s had a lot of success over the years.”

Asked whether the problems MTN are experiencing in Nigeria were benefiting Vodacom in any way from a competitive viewpoint, Joosub said: “No, I don’t think so. I think for me it’s more important that we’re consistently executing our strategy, and we don’t really focus too much on what’s going on outside there.”

“Obviously, you have to be cognisant of what your competitors are doing, but I think you have to really execute very well on your plan,” Joosub said.

“One mustn’t get distracted ,” Joosub said.