MTN Telecoms shares have fallen sharply in trading at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange after the mobile phone firm said it expected to report a loss for the first half of this year as it pays a record fine imposed by Nigeria for failing to disconnect unregistered Sim cards.


The shares of Africa's biggest mobile phone company dropped 2.5% at 11:25 local time, after earlier slumping by as much as 3.8%, the most in three weeks on a closing basis, Bloomberg news agency reports.

Last month, South African-owned MTN said it would pay Nigeria $1.7bn (£1.1bn), dropping legal action against  the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). 

It was originally fined $5.2bn by the NCC but the two sides settled on a lower amount.