MTN profits drop by 50% as firm sets aside $600m to settle NCC fine

South Africa’s MTN Group has set aside around $600 million to cover the potential settlement of a fine in Nigeria, it said on Thursday, as it posted a more than 50 per cent drop in annual profit.
Africa’s biggest wireless phone company is in talks with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to reduce a $3.9 billion fine imposed last year for failing to cut off unregistered SIM card users.
MTN said that headline Earnings Per Share (EPS) came in at 746 cents in the year to end-December compared with 1,536 cents a year earlier.
Headline EPS is the main profit measure in South Africa that strips out certain one off items.
The company raised its annual dividend by 5.2 per cent to 1,310 cents per share.