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The much expected initial public offering (IPO) by MTN Group for its Nigerian unit will not exceed June 2018, BusinessDay can disclose. Ahead of that target, MTN Group hopes to get all necessary approvals for the listing including that of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
MTN Group agreed to list the Nigerian unit on the Nigerian Stock Exchange this year as part of a June 2016 agreement to pay a $1 billion fine for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers amid a security crackdown.
An insider with knowledge of the MTN Nigeria listing said, “We are sticking to the June date for coming to the market.”
BusinessDay reported earlier that new highs of 10.61percent return seen this year at the Nigerian stock market forced the advisors to proposed MTN Nigeria shares listing to renter their boardrooms for proper pricing of their shares.
Standard Bank Group Limited and Citigroup Incorporated have been advising Africa’s largest mobile-phone company on the disposal of as much as 30 percent of the Lagos-based unit on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The Nigerian stock market rose by 42percent last year. MTN group announced in November that it had commenced processes for the proposed listing of its Nigerian unit on the NSE in 2018.
MTN crossed major huddles to the Nigeria unit listing after three different Emergency General Meetings (EGMs), the latest of which was held on Thursday last week.
At the latest Emergency General Meeting, issues of complaints by different categories of shareholders and that of LATE shares managed by IBTC, among others were resolved.
Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange told BusinessDay on the sideline of the 2017 market recap and 2018 outlook that the Nigerian bourse is hopeful MTN Group will fulfil its statement on listing the shares of its Nigerian units this year.
“We have always said the Nigeria listing is obviously subject to market conditions but it would seem at this stage more likely a 2018 event,” Ralph Mupita, CFO, MTN Group had said while presenting the group’s third-quarter (Q3) results.
He said that the group feels pretty confident that it is seeing value share increase off the back of the investment that they have made in Nigeria. “So a very pleasing growth in service revenue level in Nigeria”.
Top on the assignment of the advisers is to reach an acceptable pricing (valuation) of the shares to be listed.
MTN is also preparing to raise as much as 2 billion cedis ($447 million) through listing 35 percent of the subsidiary on the Ghana Stock Exchange in what will be the largest share sale in the country’s history.
Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African governments are trying to gain more from international mobile-phone operators taking advantage of rising smartphone use and faster data speeds.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
