Black day for MTN shares as CFO goes

MTN's share price took a beating yesterday after Africa's largest telecoms operator said its chief financial officer had resigned following unspecified allegations that were under investigation.

MTN said after the close of trade on Monday it had replaced Nazir Patel with Brett Goschen, who headed its operations in Nigeria, its biggest business after South Africa.

The allegations against Patel were subject to an "ongoing investigation which had been commissioned by the company", MTN said.

MTN's stock fell about 3% in early trade before recouping some losses. It was down 2.4% in afternoon trading.

"The company has obviously discovered something and has taken decisive action," said Sven Richter, head of frontier markets at Renaissance Asset Managers, which holds a stake in MTN.

"We like to know that the company has the depth of management that they can find someone who actually looks like a good candidate and put him into position very quickly."

MTN has not announced who will lead its Nigerian operation following Goschen's promotion.

Patel, who took over as chief financial officer in 2009, had served on the boards of a number of MTN subsidiaries and had also participated in several of its merger and acquisition activities.

Despite Patel's abrupt exit, Richter said MTN was still a well-run company operating in strong markets.

"We think actually this is a good buy at this point," he said.

JSE-listed MTN has businesses in more than 20 countries.