By Dipo Olowookere
The public offer of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc was oversubscribed by 139.47 per cent, details of the exercise conducted last year have revealed.
In the series 1 of the sales, which commenced on December 1 and ended on December 14, the telco intended to sell 575 million shares, but it ended up allotting 661.25 million shares, indicating an additional 86.25 million units.
The exercise was done in two tranches, with the first mainly for institutional investors through book building and the second tranche for retail investors at a fixed price of N169 per unit.
According to MTN Nigeria, a total of 126,720 retail investors submitted valid applications and received the full allocation, while the institutional investors were allotted 72.09 per cent of their bids. They were majorly pension funds managers, insurance companies, asset managers, corporates and foreign portfolio investors.
The stocks allotted to investors in the series 1 were part of the ones held by the majority shareholders of MTN Nigeria, MTN Group. It held a 78.83 per cent stake in the network service provider and with the latest development, its shareholding has reduced to 75.58 per cent.
When the public offer was on, MTN Nigeria promised that it would give one free share for every 20 shares purchased and held for at least one year.
In the results released by the firm, it was stated that this pledge would be fulfiled and that an additional 4.28 million MTN Nigeria shares will be allotted to qualifying investors who hold the stocks till January 31, 2023.
According to MTN Nigeria, the exercise attracted 114,938 new market participants and this was known through the creation of new CSCS accounts. It added that about 76 per cent of the successful applicants via digital platform were women, with 85 per cent of them under the age of 40.
The company said the success of the MTN Nigeria public offer clearly showed the confidence investors have in the company and marked the first time a digital application platform was used to democratise investing in a public offer, attracting 89 per cent of retail subscriptions.
