By Dipo Olowookere
On Tuesday, May 29, 2019, MTN Group, the largest telecommunications firm in Africa, launched an initial public offering (IPO) for a 35 percent stake in its business in Ghana.
In recent times, MTN group has had talks with both the Ghanaian and Nigerian governments on the possibility of listing its shares on their respective stock exchanges.
While the Nigerian listing is expected to happen before the end of this year, the Ghana listing commenced yesterday with MTN Ghana hoping to raise about $743 million (3.47 billion cedis) from the exercise.
According to MTN Group Vice President, Mr Ebenezer Asante, about 4.63 billion shares of MTN Ghana would be sold during the IPO at 0.75 cedis per share.
Mr Asante noted that foreign investors are only allowed to buy up to 5 percent of the offer, explaining that, “The focus really is to give as much opportunity to Ghanaians to share in the success story of the company.”
An Accra-based brokerage firm, IC Securities, was appointed as the lead adviser for the transaction, which closes at the end of July this year.
MTN is the leading mobile operator in Ghana with 17.8 million voice subscribers ahead of AirtelTigo, Vodafone and Globacom, owned by Nigerian businessman, Mr Mike Adenuga.
The listing is one of the requirements MTN agreed with Ghanaian regulators in 2015 to allow for the introduction of its fourth generation, high-speed mobile data network.
Adedapo Adesanya