Updates following MTN’s Listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange

MTN Nigeria has been on the news lately. The most recent of them is their enlistment on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Friday, May 16th, 2019. They also appointed Sanusi Lamido, the Emir of Kano and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as a non-Executive Director of the board. All in a bid to meet all requirements of the NSE, they transitioned from a private company to a public liability company.

Prior to listing, we reported their registration of 20.35 billion ordinary shares at 2 kobos per shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The latest gist is that many investors expected it to be an initial public offering (IPO) but, MTN ‘listed by introduction’. This means that the listed shares are already owned by current investors who will then sell off their shares to others.

Few minutes after MTN successfully listed at N90 per share, the price rose by 10% to N99 and closed on the first day with an estimated value of N2 trillion. On Friday, the 17th of May, MTN’s share cost N108.9, about 20% higher than the initial listing per share. Over 200000 units were traded on the early hours of the day.

Although the direct listing raised money for the shareholders, the ownership of the company remains the same. Speaking about an IPO, Ferdi Moolman – CEO of MTN Nigeria said a date would be chosen but, determined by the market need and financial condition.

As more gists on MTN Nigeria’s listing unfolds, they also got a “Super-agent license” approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria. This will enable them to operate the Payment Services Bank model. They will be able to sell prepaid airtime and offer mobile money financial services. In no time, they will test run the service and will officially launch it within the second half of 2019.