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MTN, Africa’s largest mobile operator, has said that it expects annual profits to fall by 20 percent for 2015 because of the company’s weaker performance in Nigeria, its largest market.

The telecoms company stated this in a profit warning issued to investors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on Thursday.

MTN has over 62 million subscribers in Nigeria and the country accounts for 37 percent of the group’s revenues. MTN has over over 230 million subscribers in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East.

MTN was forced to disconnect millions of unregistered subscribers in Nigeria. Its failure to do that by the regulatory deadline of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) resulted in a $5.2 billion fine, which was later cut by 25 percent to $3.9 billion.

The South African company sued the NCC over the fine, but recently hired Eric Holder, a former US Attorney General, to negotiate an out-of-court settlement. The presiding judge gave both parties until March 18th to reach an agreement.

MTN said the profit warning did not include payment of any penalty because a deal has not been reached with Nigerian authorities. In January, MTN confirmed media reports that its Nigeria subsidiary recorded a profit of $955 million (N190 billion) in 2015.

"There remains some uncertainty as to the final quantum (amount) of the Nigerian fine, should an out-of-court settlement be reached," MTN said.

At the end of trading at the JSE on Friday, MTN’s shares fell 18 percent, the most since August 1998, to close at 126 rand. Since the Nigeria fine was announced in October, MTN’s shares have fallen by over 34 percent.