MTN's Nhleko was paid R72.2m

Johannesburg - MTN Group awarded Executive Chairman

Phuthuma Nhleko R72.2 million in pay and bonuses last year after he negotiated

a reduced fine with Nigerian regulators and shook up senior management.

Nhleko, 56, was paid a R30 million salary and a R38.2

million bonus, Africa’s biggest mobile-phone company said in its annual report

published on Thursday. The balance was a fee for simultaneously holding a role

as non-executive chairman. Nhleko retook the leadership of the

Johannesburg-based company on the short-term basis in November 2015 following

the resignation of CEO Sifiso Dabengwa.

“In order to take on this full-time executive role at

short notice, Mr. Nhleko was required to commit 100 percent to the MTN task and

step away for 16 months from all his considerable other various commercial

interests,” the wireless operator said. “The board negotiated an appropriate

monthly fee and performance-related cash bonus contract with him.”

The compensation was agreed with the businessman after he

was hired to take over from Dabengwa, who took responsibility for the fine in

Nigeria, MTN’s biggest market. The penalty was levied for missing a government

deadline to disconnect subscribers who were found to be unregistered in the country,

which is battling an Islamist insurgency. The fine was originally set at $5.2

billion, of which MTN eventually paid $1 billion. Nhleko also hired new CEO Rob

Shuter, who joined from Vodafone Group Plc earlier this month. He’s now back to

being non-executive chairman and will quit altogether next year.

Read also:  Nhleko sells R123m in shares

Shuter has been handed a four-year contract, according to

the annual report, which didn’t specify the CEO’s salary.

Other achievements

Nhleko’s achievements at MTN also included repatriating

funds from Iran, reviewing corporate governance standards and implementing a

new program designed to benefit those discriminated against during apartheid,

the company said. The pay deal comes on top of R123 million the executive

earned by selling shares late last year.

MTN shares were little changed at the close in

Johannesburg at R123.25, valuing the company at R232 billion. The stock is 35

percent below levels before the Nigeria fine was implemented.

Outside MTN, Nhleko is the co-founder of black empowerment

investment company Phembani Group, which is bidding for coal mines owned by

Anglo American.

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