The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has suspended trading in MTN group’s shares, following a loss of N1.048 trillion in its market worth after the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) N1.04tr fine.
MTN was fined on N1.04tr for failure to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered subscribers within the NCC deadline.
Immediately after the fine, MTN stock took a red turn, with the company experienced over 12 percent decline in its shares for the first time in 17 years on the JSE.
The decline continued on Tuesday, October 27 as MTN shares lost more value, falling by another four percent Tuesday and 2.6 percent to 155.85 rand at the close of business on Wednesday – the lowest since October 2012. MTN’s market value had dropped by 22 percent since the fine was made public on Monday.
According to Bloomberg, MTN has lost $5.24b (N1.4tr) in market capitalisation from October 23 to 29, as the fine continued to take toll on its value on Monday November 2.
According to early morning trading on the South African bourse, MTN shares fell as low as 9.7 percent on Monday, then rising to 5 percent, before being suspended a few minutes to 11am.
MTN group has been in talks with Nigerian authorities to review the fine, which is as more than MTN’s $3.9 billion revenue for the year 2014.
Laolu Akande, special assistant on media and publicity to Yemi Osinbajo, has said contrary to reports, that MTN group executives have not met met the vice president on the matter, adding that the NCC is in charge.
