As MTN’s outgoing president and CEO Phuthuma Nhleko prepares to present his final interim results set on Thursday, analysts are hoping the group’s board will announce his successor at the same time.

At the beginning of March, MTN made the surprise announcement that Nhleko had decided to step down and would leave the group by March next year.

Since then, the group has been quiet about a possible successor despite speculation about possible candidates.

The most obvious internal candidate is group chief operating officer, Nhleko’s right-hand man Sifiso Dabengwa.

“Whoever takes over from Phuthuma will have a tough act to follow,” says Absa Investments analyst Chris Gilmour.

He says it’s difficult to see where Nhleko’s replacement will find growth opportunities for the group.

With big acquisitions drying up, Gilmour doesn’t expect impressive growth numbers this week.

Under Nhleko, MTN has chased strong acquisitive growth. That’s slowed, though. In the past two years, MTN has engaged several emerging market players, including Egypt’s Orascom and India’s Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications. None of the deals was realised.

Earlier this year, Nhleko admitted big deals are increasingly hard to come by. Instead, the group would focus on maximising growth from and value in its existing operations.

It now appears likely that Bharti’s recent acquisition of Zain’s African assets will give MTN a run for its money, especially in its biggest market, Nigeria.

Kaplan Equity Analysts MD Irnest Kaplan says investors can expect to see slowing growth from MTN’s Nigerian operation. “We will have to wait to see to what extent the operation has slowed.”

MTN released a trading statement to investors on Monday morning in which it says it expects only modest growth in the six months to June 2010.

Adjusted headline earnings will be up by between 18,1% and 23,1%. The adjustment is because of a reversal of the impact of a put option involving the Nigerian operation.

Attributable headline earnings per share will increase by between 4,8% and 9,8% and basic headline earnings will be up by between 1,5% and 6,5%. — Candice Jones, TechCentral