MTN’s share price fell as much as 4% after it warned shareholders the fine it received from the Nigerian government would cause it to report an interim loss.

MTN said in a trading statement on Tuesday the fine will reduce its basic and headline earnings per share for the six months to end-June by R4.74, resulting in “negative” basic and headline earnings per share.

Its interim results are scheduled for release on August 5.

Besides the fine in Nigeria, MTN’s earnings also suffered from foreign exchange losses in a number of operations, losses from joint ventures and associates, and hyperinflation adjustments on MTN Irancell, the trading statement said.

MTN Nigeria’s earnings were also cut by the 4.5-million unregistered subscribers it was required to disconnect to comply with the Nigerian government’s drive to prevent Boko Haram militants using the cellphone network to trade oil for arms and co-ordinate attacks.

MTN Nigeria also lost income during the period in which Nigerian authorities withdrew its licences for failing to register users.

A further trading statement will be issued once MTN obtains a reasonable degree of certainty as to the likely range of its loss, the cellphone network said on Tuesday.

In the matching period in 2015, MTN reported basic earnings per share of R6.53 and headline earnings per share of R6.54.

On June 10, MTN announced the original $5.2bn fine it received in Nigeria — $1,000 for each of the 5.2-million subscribers it failed to identify — had been reduced to 330-billion naira, which was about $1.671bn. MTN is paying the fine in six tranches over three years.

•Text courtesy of BusinessDAY South Africa. Photo shows MTN Executive Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko.

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