MTN CEO to Step Down Next Year After Tenure Afflicted by Nigeria
MTN CEO to Step Down Next Year After Tenure Afflicted by Nigeria
MTN Group Ltd. said Chief Executive Officer Rob Shuter will step down in March next year, ending a tenure tormented by battles with Nigerian authorities that hammered the share price.
The 52-year-old is leaving at the end of his four-year contract, Johannesburg-based MTN said in a statement on Wednesday, without giving further details. A successor is expected to be identified in 2020, with internal and external candidates being considered, Shuter said on a conference call.
Shuter was hired by then-MTN Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko in 2017 to shake up the carrier following a disastrous run-in with authorities in Nigeria, the Johannesburg-based company’s biggest market, which resulted in a $1 billion fine and a severe share price decline. However, MTN had further clashes under Shuter, including over claims the company illegally moved $8.1 billion out of the country and owed $2 billion in back taxes.
Both matters were eventually resolved in MTN’s favor, though the lengthy battles took a toll on the stock. The shares are down 46% over Shuter’s three years as CEO, exacerbated by this week’s market rout over coronavirus fears and Monday’s oil-price crash.
The stock rose 3.3% to 66 rand as of 9:46 a.m. in Johannesburg, valuing MTN at 120 billion rand ($7.5 billion).
Despite MTN’s regulatory and legal challenges in Nigeria, the country remains the carrier’s biggest and most profitable market. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization gained 16% to 21 billion rand in Africa’s most populous nation last year, driven by data-sales growth.
MTN listed the local unit in Lagos in 2019, and said earlier this year it plans to sell down more of its majority stake as part of an asset-sale plan that’s expected to generate almost 40 billion rand ($2.5 billion).
The company raised 14 billion rand from sales last year, including Nigerian preference shares, and is planning for at least a further 25 billion rand of disposals over the next three to five years.
To contact the reporter on this story: Loni Prinsloo in Johannesburg at lprinsloo3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Bowker at jbowker2@bloomberg.net, Thomas Pfeiffer
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