M&R secures new contracts worth R3.6bn

“This is by far the most cost-effective option. We have been monitoring this pest since it landed in Kenya in 2003.

“Stellenbosch University employed the PhD student who worked on OFF when it was found in Kenya. Our first project on OFF was in 2005 where this student worked as a postdoc student,” said Campbell.

He added that Hortgro had funded numerous projects on OFF since then and in December, last year invited Andrew Jessup, a fruit fly expert from Australia to share their experience of Queensland fruit fly, a species similar to the oriental fruit fly, said Campbell.

“If it eventually does establish itself, we have technologies available to manage OFF effectively. Commercially we can control OFF, at a cost.

“We are promoting a wide area control approach for the control of fruit fly generally, OFF would fit into the current programme.

“To be really effective, one needs to control fruit fly in commercial orchards and in the surrounding areas where host plants provide a potential breeding ground,” said Campbell. MTN GROUP shares plummeted as much as 25% to a nine-year low yesterday, a day after Nigeria ordered the group’s Lagos business to hand over $8.1 billion (R118.8bn) that authorities say was illegally sent abroad.

The demand by Nigeria’s central bank is the latest setback for MTN in Nigeria, the South African group’s most lucrative but also its most problematic market.

It comes two years after MTN, Africa’s biggest telecoms company, agreed to pay more than $1bn to end a dispute in Nigeria over unregistered SIM cards.

The latest case underlines the risks of MTN’s strategy to operate in emerging markets, a move that has made it one of post-apartheid South Africa’s biggest commercial success stories, with operations in more than 20 countries.

Nigeria’s central bank said the funds had been illegally moved abroad because the company’s bankers had failed to verify MTN had met all the MURRAY & Roberts has been awarded new underground mining contracts to the value of R3.6 billion.

The group said yesterday the new contracts included the Pumpkin Hollow underground project in Nevada for Nevada Copper Corp, where work would include shaft-sinking and underground mine development, and shaft-sinking for foreign exchange regulations. MTN denies the allegations. At 12.24pm, MTN shares were down 21.05% at R84.78, after touching R80.61, a level last seen in 2009. The stock is on track for its biggest one-day decline on record.

The money is more than half of MTN’s market capitalisation, and analysts said the demand risked further undermining Nigeria’s efforts to shake off an image as a risky frontier market for international investors.

The crux of the allegation is that MTN used improperly issued certificates to convert shareholders loans in its Nigerian unit to preference shares in 2007.

As a result, dividends paid by MTN Nigeria to the parent company between 2007 and 2015 – amounting to $8.1bn – are deemed illegal, and should be returned, Nigeria alleges.

“No dividends have been declared or paid by MTN Nigeria other than pursuant to certificates of capital importation issued by our bankers a copper mine in South Africa, which it did not identify. The projects would be delivered over a period of up to three years.

The new contracts follow the group reporting in its annual financial results for the year to June, which were released on Wednesday, that the order book for its underground mining platform had increased to R22.1bn in this reporting and with the approval of the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) as required by law,” MTN said.

The demand has raised worries about doing business in Nigeria, whose finances have been hit by a weak economy and volatile oil prices.

“One wonders why this wasn’t brought to MTN’s attention years ago. You just can’t do business in an environment where these type of things are going to happen,” said Greg Davies of boutique investment house Cratos Capital in Johannesburg.

Nigeria’s central bank also fined four banks, including Standard Bank’s unit in Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC, for their role in moving the money out of Africa’s biggest economy.

On Wednesday, the central bank said it had fined Stanbic IBTC 1.8 billion naira (R73 million) and ordered that it return $2.6bn it repatriated on behalf of clients, including MTN.

Standard Bank said its unit “denies any imputation of malfeasance.” – Reuters period from R17.5bn in the previous year.

M&R’s total group order book from continuing operations grew by 12% to R30.1bn at end-June from R26.9bn in the previous year. This week the group reported a 56% increase in diluted continuing headline earnings a share to 112c in the year to June from 72c in the previous year. – Staff Writer