MTN gets greenlight to sell Guinea-Bissau business to Telecel Group Mobile

MTN has finalised a deal to exit its business in Guinea-Bissau after receiving the necessary approvals from authorities.

Africa’s largest mobile operator has been in talks to exit three of its smaller operations in West Africa — MTN Guinea-Bissau, MTN Guinea-Conakry and MTN Liberia — for more than a year. 

The Guinea-Bissau unit will be sold to Telecel Group Mobile “in line with the group’s strategic priority to accelerate portfolio transformation”.

The operator said it had taken steps “to ensure a seamless transfer of ownership, which the group believes is in the best interests of MTN Guinea-Bissau, its stakeholders and the sector in Guinea-Bissau at large”.

The value of this transaction has not been disclosed. 

At the end of the 2023 financial year, MTN had 838,000 customers in Guinea-Bissau, 314,000 of which were data subscribers.

The business made R309m in revenue for the period, ending up with a R173m loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, excluding one-off transactions. 

MTN, which had developed a reputation for conquering emerging-market countries that few dare to touch, has also been exiting its businesses in the Middle East region — including Syria, Yemen and Iran — as part of a five-year slim-down plan unveiled in 2019 to reduce risk, sell noncore assets such as towers and masts, and raise about R25bn.

The Yemen and Syria businesses were sold in 2021. Just Iran remains in the group’s regional portfolio having sold its shareholding in Afghanistan to Investcom, an affiliate company of Singaporean telecom company M1, in February 2024.

Afghanistan accounted for about 2% of all MTN subscribers. 

gavazam@businesslive.co.za