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MTN Appoints Group COO, South Africa Head

By BusinessNews Staff on August 3, 2014

One of Africa’s biggest telecommunications operators, the MTN Group, said yesterday that it had appointed Zunaid Bulbulia as its new Group Chief Operating Officer, adding that Ahmad Farroukh would replace him as head of the company’s South African operations.

As CEO of MTN South Africa, Farroukh would face growing competition in the company’s home market, which has been overtaken by Nigeria as the group’s biggest revenue earner, Reuters said.

Bulbulia would help oversee the company’s growth in other lucrative markets. MTN has operations in nearly two dozen countries across Africa and the Middle East.

Bulbulia is one of the founders of MTN, while Farroukh is former CEO of MTN Nigeria, and served in a similar role at MTN Ghana.

Meanwhile, a report has shown keen on entering the Indian market, MTN is in talks with telcos in the country to buy stakes in their firms.

Sources told the CNBC that MTN is open to picking up financial stake in an existing Indian telecom player. They said MTN is in talks with three Indian telcos — Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular.
The CNBC learnt from sources that MTN may go for a strategic acquisition route for its India entry.

MTN meanwhile said it continues to look for value-enhancing opportunities, but refused to give further information on the deal.
In the past, MTN had faced pricing competition and regulatory issues in key markets.

[This Day]

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