The MTN share closed marginally lower yesterday after news that Iran had awarded a rival bidder the licence to build and operate a cellular network in the country.
The Iranian government announced that it had awarded the licence to a consortium led by Turkish mobile phone operator Turkcell and which includes Swedish group Ericsson and Nordic/Baltic group TeliaSonera.
MTN and Turkcell were among five companies short-listed for the licence. The other three were Egypt`s Orascom Group, Austria`s Mobilkom and a consortium comprising two Kuwaiti companies (MTC and Wataniya Telecom) and Germany`s T-Mobile, a division of Deutsche Telekom.
Local MTN rival Vodacom had also initially appeared on the short-list but withdrew from the bidding process in January.
Having won the bid in Iran, Turkcell will now compete against the country`s state-run network, Telecommunication Company of Iran, which has been a monopoly until now.
Turkcell says in an official statement that Iran has a population of about 70 million and a mobile phone penetration rate of about 4%.
The MTN share lost 19c or 0.63% to close at R29.90 on the JSE yesterday although by midmorning today it had regained 10c to trade at R30.
MTN has withdrawn a cautionary notice that related to unspecified talks.
Related story:
Vodacom`s about-turn on Iran
Share