The MTN Group’s shares took a plunge on Monday following the announcement of a fine of N1.04tn ($5.2bn) imposed on the Nigerian subsidiary of the company by the Nigerian Communications Commission for its failure to disconnect customers with unregistered Subscriber Identification Module cards.
Business intelligence site, Bloomberg reported that the stock declined by more than 12%, the biggest one-day decline since 1998, thereby closing at the lowest price since June 2013.
Stockbrokers put the value of the company at N4.5tn ($23bn), saying MTN was the biggest decliner in percentage terms on the benchmark Africa All Share Index FTSE/Johannesburg Stock Exchange Africa All Share Index, while also weighing more on the gauge than any other security.
The penalty relates to the timing of the disconnection of 5.1 million MTN Nigeria subscribers in August and September, and is based on N200,000 for each unregistered subscriber.
The company said in a statement on Monday that it was in talks with the NCC to resolve the matter.
MTN, which has about 233 million customers in 22 countries in the Middle East and Africa, cut its full-year forecast for subscriber numbers on October 22 after the 5.1 million Nigerian customers were disconnected from its biggest market, where it had about 62 million customers at the end of September.
