Johannesburg - MTN Group awarded Executive Chairman
Phuthuma Nhleko R72.2 million in pay and bonuses last year after he negotiated
a reduced fine with Nigerian regulators and shook up senior management.
Nhleko, 56, was paid a R30 million salary and a R38.2
million bonus, Africa’s biggest mobile-phone company said in its annual report
published on Thursday. The balance was a fee for simultaneously holding a role
as non-executive chairman. Nhleko retook the leadership of the
Johannesburg-based company on the short-term basis in November 2015 following
the resignation of CEO Sifiso Dabengwa.
“In order to take on this full-time executive role at
short notice, Mr. Nhleko was required to commit 100 percent to the MTN task and
step away for 16 months from all his considerable other various commercial
interests,” the wireless operator said. “The board negotiated an appropriate
monthly fee and performance-related cash bonus contract with him.”
The compensation was agreed with the businessman after he
was hired to take over from Dabengwa, who took responsibility for the fine in
Nigeria, MTN’s biggest market. The penalty was levied for missing a government
deadline to disconnect subscribers who were found to be unregistered in the country,
which is battling an Islamist insurgency. The fine was originally set at $5.2
billion, of which MTN eventually paid $1 billion. Nhleko also hired new CEO Rob
Shuter, who joined from Vodafone Group Plc earlier this month. He’s now back to
being non-executive chairman and will quit altogether next year.
Read also: Nhleko sells R123m in shares
Shuter has been handed a four-year contract, according to
the annual report, which didn’t specify the CEO’s salary.
Other achievements
Nhleko’s achievements at MTN also included repatriating
funds from Iran, reviewing corporate governance standards and implementing a
new program designed to benefit those discriminated against during apartheid,
the company said. The pay deal comes on top of R123 million the executive
earned by selling shares late last year.
MTN shares were little changed at the close in
Johannesburg at R123.25, valuing the company at R232 billion. The stock is 35
percent below levels before the Nigeria fine was implemented.
Outside MTN, Nhleko is the co-founder of black empowerment
investment company Phembani Group, which is bidding for coal mines owned by
Anglo American.