Business Post has learned that Airtel Africa, the continent’s subsidiary of Indian company, Bharti Airtel, will list its shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, July 5, 2019.

On Friday, June 28, 2019, the telecommunications company made its trading debut on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) after raising $750 million through its initial public offering (IPO). However, at the close of trading Friday 28th June, shares of the firm, which opened at 80 pence per share, settled at 67 pence a share, losing 16 percent of its value.

It was gathered by Business Post that when the shares of the company are admitted on the NSE next week, they would be sold at N363 each and should boost the market capitalisation by up to N1.4 trillion. In an exchange filing on Friday, Bharti Airtel said it would offer Nigerian investors meaningful allocations after receiving subscriptions from investors from Asia, Europe, Middle East and others.

The company said it expects to have a free float in excess of 25 percent, as certain of the pre-IPO investors’ holdings will also constitute free float. Commenting on the exercise, CEO of Airtel Africa Plc, Raghunath Mandava, stated that, “We are now the first telecom company to simultaneously list on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange and Nigerian Stock Exchange through an IPO.

“We welcome our new investors and look forward to continuing to execute our strategy and deliver the growth opportunities across our markets in voice, data and mobile money.” Mandava further said, “This is an exciting time for us. We are very pleased with the success of the initial public offering and welcome our new shareholders. The strength of our network and continued growth and evolution of the African telecoms sector has fuelled the demand for our shares.

“We have a strong track record operating in a fast-growing region. The markets we operate in have powerful and promising underlying macroeconomic and demographic trends, and we believe we are best placed to capitalise on this opportunity. We are delighted to give a broader range of investors access to the benefits of our in-depth knowledge of the markets we operate in. We have a clear strategy to continue growing and look forward to delivering it.”

Chairman of the firm, Sunil Bharti Mittal, noted that, “The strong support we have received from institutional investors demonstrates the attractive investment proposition Airtel Africa offers the market. Since first investing in Africa almost nine years ago, we have leveraged our expertise in emerging markets to deliver on a clearly defined strategy to build Airtel Africa into a market-leading mobile service provider, increasingly expanding beyond voice into data services and Airtel Money.

“The board would like to thank those involved in the process and looks forward to supporting the management team as they execute on the strategy. With the recent equity investments into the business by globally recognised long-term investors, we believe that Airtel Africa is in a strong position to build its own capital market profile, allowing others to join us in a real business success story,” he added.

In February 2018, Bharti Airtel announced its intention to consider an IPO for the Africa business, using the net proceeds from the issue of new shares for the reduction of $4 billion net debt. Airtel Africa has presence in 14 African countries, with 100 million customers across West Africa, East Africa and Central Africa, with Nigeria alone accounting for 36 percent of its total revenue.

The company provides telecommunications and mobile money services on the continent and serves a large and fast-growing addressable market, with attractive mobile data and mobile money growth prospects as non-voice revenue remains lower than other geographies.

Last month, its rival in Africa, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, listed its shares on the NSE at N90 each and rose to nearly N160 per unit before plunging to N129.05k as at 28th June.

SOURCE: https://businesspost.ng/2019/06/29/airtel-africa-to-boost-nse-market-cap-by-n1-4trn/

This is a good development