TheCable

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 stipulated deadline.

Immediately after the fine, MTN stock took a red turn, the company experiencing over 12 percent decline in its shares on the JSE for the first time in 17 years.

The decline continued on Tuesday, October 27, as MTN shares lost more value, falling by another four percent, and by 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 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 that contrary to reports, MTN group executives have not met the vice president on the matter, adding that the NCC is in charge.