JSE halts trading of MTN shares
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has halted the trade in all MTN shares at the request of the telecoms group, until further notice.
The announcement follows another major trade off of shares on Monday morning, after unconfirmed reports emerged saying that the telco had agrees to pay a $5.2 billion fine in Nigeria.
Shares in MTN fell to R149.48 or 5.27% on Monday, before trade was halted. The company has wiped off more than R110 from it’s share price since August last year, when it reached a high of R262.50.
The mobile operator has for some time been a heavy hitter on the JSE, ranking among the top 10 most valuable, with a market cap exceeding R450 billion by the end of 2014. That figure however, has dwindled to R290 billion.
The report by Nigeria’s Vanguard website, cited unnamed sources saying that MTN had agreed to pay the fine, pleading for a staggered payment model.
According to a report by Bloomberg, MTN has not agreed to the fine, and is continuing to engage with Nigerian authorities to challenge it.
MTN declined to comment, saying it would release a statement later on Monday.
The Nigerian Communications Commission hit MTN with a 1.04 trillion naira ($5.2 billion) fine on the 26th of October, for failing to disconnect over 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards on its network.
MTN’s share price plummeted by as much as 20% following the news, swiping off over R63 billion of the company’s value.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgrading MTN’s credit rating – putting the mobile network on a negative credit watch.
The group faces further scrutiny with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) starting an investigation into the timing of MTN Group’s announcement of the fine, which was published long after the news broke.
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