Operators

MTN says farewell to Syria as new tender is announced

Pan-African (and formerly Middle Eastern) operator MTN is finally leaving Syria and, it seems, a replacement is already being lined up.

MTN CEO Ralph Mupita met the Syrian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdulsalam Haykal, at MWC26 earlier this week and announced an agreement to regularise MTN's disengagement from Syria, with both parties indicating that they intend to implement the deal as soon as possible.

Indeed, during the show Syria launched an international tender for a new mobile network operator licence to replace MTN Syria. The tender will run until 15 June.

The winning ⁠operator will be awarded a 20-year licence and a 75% stake in the business (at the moment MTN owns 75% of MTN Syria). Syria's sovereign fund will hold the remaining 25%. It’s not clear whether, or how much, MTN is to be paid for its 75% stake.

MTN announced in 2020 ⁠that it was selling its 75% stake in MTN Syria to minority shareholder TeleInvest for US$65 million. But that didn’t happen, and, as we reported at the time, MTN abandoned the operation in 2021, saying that regulatory actions and licence payment demands had now made it ‘intolerable’ to operate in Syria.

Reuters reports that a court in Damascus had ⁠placed MTN Syria under judicial guardianship over alleged breaches of its licence obligations that the state said deprived it of revenue. MTN denied those accusations. It has booked a 4.7 billion rand (US$287 million) loss based on ⁠the 'deconsolidation' of its former subsidiary.

MTN has largely withdrawn from the Middle East as part of a strategy to focus on its African ⁠operations. It sold its operations in Yemen in late 2021 and Afghanistan in 2022. Efforts to divest its 49% stake in Iran have been delayed by US sanctions.

As for Syria, ITWeb Africa quoted an MTN announcement that says: "The two parties formalised an agreement to regularise MTN’s exit from Syria, with the intention that both sides implement the agreement imminently."



More Articles you may be Interested in...