TechRasa- After hearing the news that the South-African Telecom Company, MTN, was negotiating with Iranian authorities and especially the Central Bank of Iran to repatriate a massive amount of its money (300 million Euros), the continuance of this company’s presence in the Iranian market became rather a mystery. 

This company which owns a 49% share in Irancell (Iran’s second largest mobile operator) and an investor in some of the most popular digital businesses in Iran (Bamilo, Snapp, SnappTrip) was reported to have faced difficulties in transferring its resources and profits outside of Iran due to the U.S. exiting the nuclear deal with Iran and imposing severe sanctions on the country once again.

However, the CEO of MTN, Rob Shuter, announced yesterday on the 25th of May at the annual general meeting of the company’s shareholders, that they will remain active in Iran.

According to Money Web, Rob Shuter acknowledged that the U.S. withdrawing from Iran’s nuclear deal has created some complexity for MTN. However, he emphasized that the company will remain committed to its investments in the Iranian market and has no intention of leaving it. He also added that the company pursues to grow it’s divined between 10 to 20 percent a year over the medium term after the 2018 financial year.

About the divined repatriation, shuter explained that they still have some months before the sanction on Iran are effective. “We are making every effort to repatriate the funds,” Shuter said.

The complexities that the Iranian market is dealing with due to Trump’s decision of the U.S. no longer remaining in the JCPA (Iranian nuclear deal), has caused many giant international companies to forcefully reconsider their business with Iran, such as Airbus and Boeing which are losing 40 billion dollars. At the same time the giant oil and gas company, Total, is said to stop its activities in the Islamic Republic as well. These and so many more examples have created a frustrating and an unpredictable atmosphere in the Iranian market.