{"id":15620,"date":"2012-10-16T18:05:31","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T16:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/irans-tumbling-rial-to-squeeze-mtns-profit\/"},"modified":"2012-10-16T18:05:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T16:05:31","slug":"irans-tumbling-rial-to-squeeze-mtns-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/irans-tumbling-rial-to-squeeze-mtns-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s tumbling rial to squeeze MTN’s profit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Oct 16 (Reuters) – A plunge in Iran’s currency
\ncould slice 5 percent or more off MTN Group’s full-year
\nearnings, the latest setback for the South African mobile
\noperator over its money-spinning business in the Middle Eastern
\ncountry.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

MTN, Africa’s largest wireless operator, made a big – and so
\nfar profitable – bet on Iran in 2005, taking a 49 percent stake
\nin Irancell which now contributes about 9 percent to its
\nearnings.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the tumbling rial, along with an ongoing $4.2
\nbillion lawsuit over MTN’s Iran licence, highlight the political
\nrisks of doing business with a country increasingly under
\npressure from Western sanctions over its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanctions have slashed Iran’s oil export earnings and
\ntriggered a rush by its citizens to exchange their savings for
\nforeign currency, dragging the rial down. While the official
\nrate is 12,600 rials per U.S. dollar, the price on the open
\nmarket hit a record 37,500 rials earlier this month.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“As I understand it, the authorities are trying to stabilise
\nthe rial at around 25,000 to the dollar. Let us assume it went
\nto the 25,000 point as a first step. That would cut MTN’s
\nIranian earnings stream roughly in half,” said Richard Barker, a
\nCredit Suisse analyst in Johannesburg. “That is going to knock
\nroughly 5 percent off their earnings.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

MTN finance director Nazir Patel said in August the rial’s
\nslide could have a big impact on second-half earnings, expected
\nin March.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Spokesman Paul Norman said on Tuesday the company was not in
\na position to comment further.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

MTN has been unable to move money out of Iran for months due
\nto the widening U.S. sanctions, and has said it was in talks
\nwith the Unites States about repatriating funds.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura JOHANNESBURG Oct 16 (Reuters) – A plunge in Iran’s currency could slice 5 percent or more off MTN Group’s full-year earnings, the latest setback for the South African mobile operator over its money-spinning business in the Middle Eastern country. MTN, Africa’s largest wireless operator, made a big – and so far profitable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}