MTN Group’s unit in Ghana raised 1.1-billion cedis (R3.5-billion) selling about a third of the shares the wireless carrier made available in an initial public offering, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.
MTN, Africa’s biggest mobile phone company by subscribers, sold 1.5 billion securities of the 4.6 billion shares at 75 pesewas each when it offered a 35% stake in the unit in May, the document showed. The shares will be listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange with trading due to start 5 September, according to the sale’s prospectus.
MTN confirmed the result in a statement e-mailed by the bourse on Thursday.
Even though MTN failed to sell all the shares on offer, the proceeds are more than three times larger than the previous biggest IPO in Ghana, when Agricultural Development Bank raised 326 million cedis in December 2016. The IPO result comes as MTN fights a surprise order late on Wednesday from Nigeria’s central bank to refund US$8.1-billion it says was repatriated improperly from the country over eight years through 2015.
The Johannesburg-based company sold shares in Ghana to meet conditions agreed to with the government in 2015, when it acquired the right to use spectrum for 4G wireless services.
The number of securities sold account for 12.5% in the unit as the parent’s holding lowers to 85%, with the rest held by existing minority holders, Kwabena Osei-Boateng, MD of transaction adviser IC Securities, told reporters on Thursday in the capital, Accra. — Reported by Moses Mozart Dzawu, with assistance from Loni Prinsloo, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP
