Timeline: MTN’s rough ride

MTN Group President and CE Sifiso Dabengwa at the head quaters in Fairlands West of Johannesburg .photo by Simphiwe Mbokazi 5

MTN Group President and CE Sifiso Dabengwa at the head quaters in Fairlands West of Johannesburg .photo by Simphiwe Mbokazi 5

Published Nov 3, 2015

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December 2010

MTN appointed Sifiso Dabengwa as its chief executive.

May 2011

Guinean government slaps MTN’s Areeba unit with a 15 million euro (R228.22m) penalty.

July 2012

South Africa’s foreign ministry suspends a former ambassador to Tehran after allegations he took a $200 000 (R2.76m) bribe to help MTN win a mobile licence in Iran.

Yusuf Saloojee, then SA ambassador to Oman, is suspended until investigations into his links to the MTN deal are concluded.

November 2012

Sanctions announced by the US treasury against Iranian individuals and companies lead to panic at mobile operator MTN.

The three executive orders released target 17 individuals believed to be related to human rights abuses by the Iranian government, as well as to supporting terrorism and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

December 2012

Tax evasion charges against cellphone giant MTN Uganda are dropped.

April 2013

MTN boss Dabengwa hails a US Supreme Court ruling as a major boost to its defence against a $4.2 billion lawsuit from rival Turkcell.

May 2015

MTN workers embark on what was to be an eight-week strike to press for a 10 percent wage demand. The strike results in the resignation of MTN SA boss Ahmad Farroukh, who is replaced by Mteto Nyati.

End of September 2015

It is thought that the kidnapping of a former finance minister, Chief Olu Falae, was the thin end of the wedge for the Nigerian authorities, according to the BBC website. The phone the kidnappers were using to communicate their ransom demands had an unregistered SIM card from MTN.

October 26, 2015

The Nigerian Communications Commission imposes a penalty of $5.2 billion on MTN’s Nigeria unit, sending the cellular operator’s stock tumbling by as much as nearly 20 percent.

October 29, 2015

Moody’s Investors Service revises MTN’s credit rating to negative. MTN maintained Moody’s Baa2 rating, or two notches above junk status. Standard & Poor’s followed suit and cut MTN’s long-term corporate credit rating to BBB- from BBB, taking it to one notch from junk.

October 30, 2015

The Nigerian telecoms regulator gives MTN two weeks to pay the fine.

November 2, 2015

MTN’s share price falls in the morning before rebounding again. JSE suspended trading, and the suspension is lifted later in the day.

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