South African mobile operator MTN Group has confirmed it expects to complete its departure from Afghanistan by the end of December.
Last year, the company agreed to sell its Afghanistan unit to Lebanese investment firm M1 New Ventures (M1 Group) for $35 million.
The same group acquired Norwegian operator Telenor's Myanmar operations for $105 million, before selling 80 percent of its stake to Shwe Byain Phyu, a local conglomerate with alleged ties to the military junta.
MTN Group has long been trying to exit Afghanistan, as the company instead focuses on its core African markets, and recently departed from Yemen and Syrian markets.
“The process to exit Afghanistan is in the regulatory approval stages and remains on track to be finalized by year-end,” said the telco earlier this week.
While the move will finalize its exit from the Middle Eastern markets, MTN also discussed the possibility of exiting three African markets: Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, and Liberia.
The company said it's exploring the "orderly exit" from the markets, with the trio only contributing a combined 1.6 percent of the Group's annual revenue for last year.
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that MTN was in 'advanced talks' with Axian over the sale of the telco's units in the three countries.
MTN claims to serve 292 million customers across 19 markets.
