MTN takes R171bn hit

MTN's market capitalisation has taken a R171.5bn hit since 2014, despite the mobile giant growing subscriber numbers across its key territories over the past five years. The telecoms operator recently released its integrated report for the financial year ending 31 December 2016 and along with it a detailed review of the operator's financials over the past five years. In the two years between 31 December 2014 and 31 December 2016, the market cap dropped almost 42%, from R409.bn down to R237.7bn. This as the share price dropped from R221.41 at the end of 2014 to R126.17 at the end of last year. Year-to-date, the stock is up by just 0.25% and yesterday morning was trading at around R125.82 a share, putting the market cap at R237.6bn. ITWeb reports that the stock took a further hit when news surfaced in October 2015 that MTN was facing a $5.2bn fine from the Nigerian Communications Commission for failing to disconnect 5.1m unregistered SIM cards in the country. After months of negotiations, MTN last year agreed to pay $1.671bn to the federal government in six instalments over three years, to settle the fine.