MTN Moves To Sell Shares In Nigeria Business Through Public Offer

MTN Group, the largest mobile operator in Africa, plans to proceed with a public offer to sell 575-million shares in its Nigerian business.

 

The process to sell shares will be done by way of a bookbuild to institutional investors and a fixed price to retail investors, the mobile operator said on Thursday when it released its quarterly trading update.

 

The offer will open in November with a bookbuild to institutional investors, after which a fixed price will be announced for retail investors. The offer is expected to close in December.

“This is the first step in our previously communicated statement of intent to sell down approximately 14% of MTN Group’s current shareholding in MTN Nigeria,” the company said in a statement.

 

The group’s subscription base rose by a net 200,000 to 271-million in the three months to end-September, held back by new SIM registration regulations in Nigeria. Stripping out Nigeria, subscribers were up 1.6-million.

 

Active data subscribers rose by 4.1-million to 119.0-million, while active MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) customers increased by 2.2-million to 51.1-million. MoMo’s value of transactions was up by a staggering 67.2% to $175.5bn year on year.

 

“The MTN Group recorded a solid [third-quarter] 2021 trading performance, tracking positively against our medium-term targets with double-digit service revenue growth and the expansion of ebitda [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] margins,” CEO Ralph Mupita said in a statement.

 

“This was delivered through solid commercial momentum and the ongoing execution of our Ambition 2025 strategy in challenging Covid-19 macroeconomic and trading conditions.”

 

Group service revenue was up 19%, while the ebitda margin improved to 45% from 42.9%. Group ebitda was up by 24.1%.