New era calls for MTN

Phuthuma Nhleko spent more than a decade building MTN into Africa's biggest wireless operator by rushing into markets few rivals would touch, from Syria to Afghanistan to South Sudan.

But now his appetite for risk has come back to haunt him, and shareholders are calling for new leadership.

The drawbacks of the aggressive style became apparent in October last year, when Nigeria slapped the company with a $5.2-billion (about R83-billion) fine - equal to double the cash on MTN's books.

Nhleko, 56, who stepped aside as CEO, returned to sort out the mess and line up a new CEO, giving himself six months.

But with that deadline past and with no signs of progress, investors will be looking for answers at MTN's annual meeting today.

The stock has lost almost a third of its value and short-seller Jim Chanos says the next move is downward.

The missteps have also rattled investors like Nick Crail, a money manager at Ashburton Investments. He has concluded that MTN needs to bring in an outsider to run the company and make changes to the board to tame its freewheeling corporate culture.

"There is a perceived lack in the credibility of the MTN management team and someone massively different with a background in telecoms and a good track record would be welcomed," said Crail.

The Nigerian regulator fined MTN for moving too slowly to disconnect unregistered customers in the country, which is battling an Islamist insurgency.

MTN engaged former US attorney general Eric Holder to challenge the fine.

A resolution may still be far off. Nigeria has suspended talks on the fine while the country's house of representatives completes an investigation into the size of the penalty and how it was delivered, a spokesman for Nigeria's ministry of communications said last week.

MTN spokesman Chris Maroleng said on Monday the firm "cautions shareholders not to make any decisions based on media reports".

Failing to heed the regulator "smacks of a cavalier attitude", said Simon Brown, a trader at investment adviser JustOneLap.