MTN is no longer the highest valued telecommunications operator in Africa. Rival telco Vodacom's market capitalisation has now overtaken MTN's.
According to Bloomberg data, at market close yesterday, MTN's market cap was R236 billion, straggling behind Vodacom's R248 billion worth. Fellow listed telecoms operator, Telkom, was still far behind the top two with a market cap of just R31 billion.
It's been a tough six months for MTN, which is still facing a $3.9 billion (R59 billion) fine in Nigeria for missing a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.
When the original $5.2 billion (R78 billion) penalty was announced in October 2015, MTN's share price was worth around R190 a share. At close yesterday, it had slumped almost 33% to R128.05.
MTN's market cap has lost R114 billion since the fine was made public. In the past 12 months, MTN's share price has fallen almost 40%.
On the other side of the coin, Vodacom seems to be going from strength to strength. The telco's stock has grown by 9.5% year-to-date and almost 20% in the last 12 months. At market close yesterday, Vodacom's share price was sitting at R166.92 a share. Vodacom will release its newest set of full year financial results on Monday, 16 May.
In terms of subscriber numbers, MTN is still by far the biggest telco, with 229 million subscribers across 22 operations in Africa and the Middle East. As of 31 December, Vodacom had 65.2 million across its five African operations.
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