By Simon Dux
Pan-African operator MTN’s exit from West Africa looks underway after Guinea’s Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPT) closed the operator’s headquarters, according to local media reports. The regulator has accused the mobile operator of non-payment of taxes, fees and licence fees.
The closure of MTN’s headquarters in Guinea comes as MTN Group plans to sell its Guinean subsidiary as part of a strategy to optimise its portfolio in Africa. The South African company has already received an offer from Axian Telecom and the proposed transaction also involves MTN’s subsidiaries in Guinea-Bissau and Liberia.
The South Africa-based company has 291 million mobile subscribers across 19 markets but announced last year it was considering an exit from three of its West African markets in the medium term.
This initiative is in line with MTN’s portfolio optimisation objective as part of its Ambition 2025 strategy, according to Ecofin Agency. As of 31 March 2023, the combined subscriber base of MTN Guinea, MTN Guinea-Bissau and MTN Liberia represented around 6.1 million of the group’s 291 million subscribers. The three subsidiaries also contributed 0.7 per cent to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the first quarter of 2023.
MTN is the second largest Guinean telecoms operator in terms of number of subscribers according to the latest ARPT statistics. The company has 24 per cent share of the prepaid market in the third quarter, compared to 69 per cent and 7 per cent for Orange and Cellcom respectively. When it comes to mobile Internet, MTN controls 25.07 per cent of the total number of subscribers, compared to 67.68 per cent and 7.25 per cent for Orange and Cellcom respectively.
If the Axian deal happens, the transaction should allow MTN to focus on its core activities in the rest of Africa with the aim of simplifying its structure and reducing its exposure to the riskiest markets. For its part, Axian Telecom continues its expansion in the African telecoms market. In April 2022, the company acquired MIC Tanzania, which brings together operators Tigo Tanzania PLC and Zanzibar Telecom (Zantel).
Last October, Axian, which has headquarters in Madagascar, doubled its stake in Senegal’s second largest mobile operator Free from 40 per cent to 80 per cent. In July 2023, Free had 5.36 million subscribers, equating to a market share of 25 per cent.
