MTN shares fall over new Nigeria claims

MTN GROUP shares slumped the most in three months after Nigerian lawmakers raised new allegations about the wireless carrier, this time accusing the company of illegally moving almost $14 billion (R191.73bn) out of its largest market. Nigeria’s Senate will thoroughly investigate the claim, it said on its Twitter yesterday. The Johannesburg-based company, Africa’s biggest wireless carrier by sales, is accused of repatriating the funds during the past 10 years starting in 2006, according to Dino Melaye, the politician who made the motion. The four banks involved in the alleged illegal transfers are Citigroup, Standard Chartered, and Nigerian lenders Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Diamond Bank. Representatives for MTN and two of the banks were not immediately available to comment. Citigroup and Johannesburg-based Standard Bank Group, which controls Stanbic, declined to comment. MTN shares fell as much as 4.4 percent, in the biggest fall since June 27. The shares closed 3.41 percent down at R119.77 on the JSE yesterday. That values the company at R220.86 billion. The accusation comes a little more than three months after MTN agreed to pay a 330 billion naira (R14.29bn) fine in cash to the Nigerian government and list its local unit on the country’s stock exchange after about eight months of negotiations. That penalty was levied for missing a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million customers unregistered in the country, which is battling an Islamic insurgency. The stock has fallen more than 37 percent since the fine was first reported in October. – Bloomberg