MTN to sell half Cyprus holding

Johannesburg, 19 May 2008

The MTN Group plans to sell half of its shareholding in MTN Cyprus to Amaracos Holding.

Amaracos is a Cypriot company owned by Shacolas Group's Cyprus Trading Corporation (51%) and Germanos Cyprus (49%), a company belonging to Greek businessman Panos Germanos.

MTN Group and Amaracos will enter into a joint-venture agreement in terms of which MTN will sell the shares in a series of transactions, MTN says in a media statement.

MTN will continue to be responsible for managing the operations of MTN Cyprus and Amaracos will provide MTN Cyprus with significant local insight into the Cypriot market.

"This transaction is intended to broaden the ownership of MTN Cyprus and further reaffirms MTN's commitment to enabling greater local representation in the countries in which it operates," says MTN Group president and CEO Phuthuma Nhleko.

MTN acquired MTN Cyprus as part of its $5.5 billion takeover of Investcom, which took place in 2006.

Investcom has presence in 11 countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Cyprus, Benin, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

According to MTN, its Cyprus operation recorded 120 000 subscribers as at 31 March 2008. MTN Cyprus holds an estimated market share of 16% of the Cyprian mobile phone industry.

MTN notes that MTN Cyprus will also acquire 100% of the share capital of Infotel, a handset retailer in Cyprus that trades as Germanos.

The company will also purchase 100% of the share capital of Otenet, an Internet service provider in Cyprus.

These acquisitions will offer strong distribution support to MTN Cyprus and enable it to offer fully converged telecommunications services to the Cypriot market, MTN says in a media statement.