15 May 2023
MTN Group is in talks with Axian Telecom, which has made an offer to purchase its operations in three West African nations: Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry and Liberia.
"As we are at an early stage of deliberations, we emphasise that any process of this nature will entail extensive engagements with stakeholders who will be appropriately informed as and when the evaluation process has materially progressed," said MTN Group in a statement.
The move is in line with MTN's ‘portfolio optimisation focus’ within its Ambition 2025 strategy, whereby it is assessing its investments, ‘with the aim of improving returns and reducing risk.’
At the end of March 2023, the combined subscriber base of MTN Guinea-Bissau, MTN Guinea-Conakry and MTN Liberia represented approximately 6.1 million of the Group's total 291 million subscribers, and contributed just 0.7% to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). At the end of March 2023, MTN Guinea-Conakry had almost 3.2 million subscribers, MTN Liberia had just over 2 million and MTN Guinea-Bissau had just 871,000 subscribers.
