AFUWAPE GBOLABO
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of MTN Group Limited, Mr. Ralph Mupita, has said the long-anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO) of MTN Communications Nigeria Limited, is awkward and pretty challenging with the current state of things in the telecoms company.
The CFO made the remark Wednesday during an interview in South Africa with respect to the $10.1 billion demand by the Nigerian authorities.
However, Mr Mapita did admit that the preparations for the planned listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange have already progressed to a reasonable extent in spite of the company’s recent troubles with the authorities.
“We are not sitting here saying the listing is off. The listing is to remain on track. It’s just that the development makes the IPO that we had planned pretty challenging and awkward. But we have got to explore other options of continuing to meet the listing requirements” Mapita said
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) late last month demanded that MTN Group Limited return the sum of $8.1 billion which it was alleged to have illegally repatriated to South Africa from its Nigerian operation between 2006 and 2016.
However, the company has yet to comply with the CBN demand, even as it continues to claim innocence. Meanwhile, as though to compound MTN’s troubles, the office of Nigeria’s Attorney General last week made known its intentions to recover the sum of $2 billion from MTN which it claims the Telco owes in back taxes. This too was denied by the company’s management.
The Nigerian telecoms giant stated that it would engage the authorities towards ensuring a resolution to the issues.
As a result earlier this week, the company disclosed that it has taken both the CBN and Nigeria’s Attorney General to court with hopes of halting the $10.1 billion payment required of it, whilst protecting the company’s assets in Nigeria and shareholders’ rights.
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