MTN bosses get millions of rands worth of shares, but Ghana CEO missing
Executives at MTN Group have received millions of rand in shares as part of the telecommunications firm’s performance share plan.
The shares awarded will vest in three years’ time.
MTN disclosed the share awards on 29 December by way of a JSE stock exchange I news service notification to investors.
It said the Group CEO and President, Ralph Mupita, was awarded 321,077 shares under the scheme at a market value of R36.9-million based on a share price of R115. The shares will vest in December 2026, subject to conditions.
Group Senior Vice President for Markets, Ebenezer Asante got 206,556 shares worth R23.8-million. Eben Asante also got an additional allocation of 41,300 shares worth R5.4-million, correcting an “omission” in the previous financial year’s allocation.
Other senior figures in MTN included in December’s share awards are:
- Group chief financial officer Tsholofelo Molefe: 171,738 shares worth R19.7-million.
- Outgoing group chief operating officer Jens Schulte-Bockum: 212,614 shares worth R24.5-million.
- Group chief human resources officer Paul Norman: 86,431 shares worth R9.9-million.
- MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola: 108,375 shares worth R12.5-million.
- MTN South Africa CEO Charles Molapisi:144 529 shares worth R16.6-million.
- Group chief risk officer Ferdi Moolman: 98 635 shares worth R11.3-million.
- MTN South Africa chief financial officer Dineo Molefe: 51 174 shares worth R5.9-million.
- Group chief technology and information officer Mazen Mroue: 125 249 shares worth R14.4-million.
- Company secretary Thobeka Sishuba-Bonoyi:32 412 shares worth R3.7-million.
- MTN South Africa company secretary Mateboho Rantofi: 15 693 shares worth R1.8-million.
Ghana CEO Missing
Conspicuously missing on the list of beneficiaries is MTN Ghana CEO, Selorm Adadevoh, who has now been promoted to the position of Group Chief Commercial Officer, beginning June this year.
Under Selorm’s leadership MTN Ghana saw skyrocketing profits, to the extent that even the Group President and CEO described Ghana as the “jewel in MTN’s crown”. Indeed, Selorm was recently adjudged the best CEO in the MTN Group.
It is rather ironic that Selorm’s counterparts in Nigeria and South Africa, as well as even some non-CEOs in South Africa got shares but Selorm did not.
The shares form part of the executives’ remuneration package. They are therefore taxable as a benefit in kind, unless MTN operate a tax-approved share option scheme in each country where the executives normally reside for tax purposes. Moreover, the exercise of the options, and the profit resulting is normally subject to performance conditions. So instead of belly-aching about the absence of a Ghanaian snout in the trough, I would advise that attention be focused instead on the performance requirements, and on the way awards of this kind dilute the value of shares bought by investors.