JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Africa’s biggest cellular phone operator MTN Group will continue to look for acquisitions, its chief executive said on Wednesday, after the firm raised its dividend payout ratio and bought shares worth nearly 1 billion rand.
“We will continue to look for opportunistic, bolt-on acquisitions,” Chief Executive Sifiso Dabengwa told analysts and reporters at the company’s annual results presentation.
MTN said it would pay 70 percent of its earnings as a dividend, from the current 65 percent, reflecting subdued growth prospects after it failed to buy the Algerian unit of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom in 2010.