Rob Shuter's plan to recharge MTN
MTN’s new boss Rob Shuter and finance director Ralph Mupita have ambitious plans to revive the company after the $1.5bn Nigerian disaster. But will its foreign forays come back to bite it again? Nick Hedley investigates
Rob Shuter, MTN’s CEO for just under a year, has lost his expansive office — complete with a balcony and an enviable view — at the cellular service provider’s headquarters in Fairlands, a far-flung Johannesburg suburb that’s closer to the grunge of Roodepoort than the glitz and glamour of Sandton’s business hub. This was by design. Shuter and finance chief Ralph Mupita have moved within the building to be "more accessible" to their staff. In cellphone parlance, you could call it a downgrade.Today, more than two years later, it has barely recovered, sitting at R134 from a peak above R260 in 2014.Even stripping out the one-offs (like the Nigerian fine), MTN’s earnings fell from R65.5bn in 2014, to R59.9bn in 2015 and R52bn in 2016. This is why SBG Securities says that in the mobile sector, investors would do better to pick Vodacom, whose share price edged up 5% since 2014 — while MTN’s has nearly halved. That Nigerian fine came at a tough time. For a start, the industry was grappling ...
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