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(Adds deal details from CEO call, quote)
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 18 (Reuters) - South Africa's MTN Group
Ltd said on Thursday it would exit Yemen, as Africa's
largest mobile operator pursues a plan to leave the Middle East
and focus on core operations.
MTN said it would transfer its 82.8% stake to a unit of an
affiliate of Zubair Corp LLC, MTN Yemen's minority shareholder,
adding that no further material impact was expected on earnings
as it had fully impaired the Yemeni assets as of June 30.
MTN's chief executive Ralph Mupita told analysts on a call
that the transfer of the stake was for 1 Dirham.
"The important thing is we've passed (on) any potential
liabilities and that was quite a key consideration as part of
the de-risking," Mupita said.
Last year, MTN announced an exit from the Middle East to
focus on Africa as part of its efforts to simplify its structure
and reduce exposure to riskier markets.
It was also prompted by increased competition from its main
rival Vodacom, the African unit of Britain's Vodafone
, which had been striking partnerships to expand
aggressively in the continent and pushing into financial
services.
"The decision to exit Yemen was driven by a need to simplify
the portfolio and focus our limited resources on executing a
pan-African strategy," Mupita said.
MTN abandoned its business in Syria in August, saying
operating there was "intolerable".
With 278 million subscribers across 21 markets, MTN has also
been exiting non-core assets including its tower business to
free up investments in its network capacity and services.
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Nqobile Dludla in
Johannesburg and Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi
Aich and Alexander Smith)
