MTN Gives Nigerians a Chance to Own the Company as it Offers to the Public 575 Million Shares Worth N99.5bn

• MTN Nigeria first became a public limited company in 2019 but has not publicly traded its shares since being listed on the Nigerian exchange
• Following its listing, MTN Nigeria was ranked as the most capitalised company only behind Dangote Cement
• According to the Nigerian Communications Commission, there are 73.56 million subscribers on the network in Nigeria at the end of September 2021

MTN Group Ltd's Nigerian unit will begin book-building later this month for a public offering of up to 575 million shares.

MTN indicated in a statement made on Thursday, November 4, 2021 that this month's book building operation will target institutional investors before fixed pricing for ordinary investors.

MTN first listed its shares in Lagos two years ago to become the second-largest stock by market capitalisation.

MTN Group said on its website said:

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"Today, we announce our intention to continue with a public offering of up to 575 million MTN Nigeria shares, via a bookbuild to institutional investors and a fixed price to retail investors," the company said.

"The offer is planned to begin in November 2021 with a book build for institutional investors, followed by the announcement of a fixed price for ordinary investors in November 2021." The transaction is scheduled to conclude in December 2021."

MTN said that selling the shares is the first stage in its previously announced plan to sell down about 14% of its present MTN Nigeria stake.

MTN is looking to complete a sale-and-leaseback of its South African telecom-mast portfolio and list shares in its Uganda operation in Kampala as part of the Nigerian transaction. 

MTN reported a 19 percent increase in third-quarter service revenue, owing to data and fintech sales. However, in Nigeria, subscriber growth slowed to only 200,000 in the third quarter, while the company added 1.6 million members in the third quarter overall.

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MTN said:

“As more of MTN’s enrolment centres in Nigeria are certified for SIM registration in line with the current regulations, we expect positive net additions to resume during Q4 2021.”

Dangote Cement, MTN Nigeria lead list of the 10 biggest companies

Legit.ng had earlier ported that Dangote Cement and MTN Nigeria are the two biggest publicly listed companies in Nigeria as at October 2021.

The two firms are among the five biggest companies in the exclusive club of over N1 trillion market capitalisation.

Data from Nigeria Exchange shows as of October 2021, shows there are over 156 listed companies with a total share of over 41 million valued at over 21 trillion.

Source: Legit.ng