MTN Uganda has announced the opening of its initial public offer (IPO) of 20 percent of its ordinary shares, following approvals by the Capital Markets Authority of Uganda (CMA) and the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). The secondary sale of 4.4 billion shares by the MTN Group will be at an offer price of UGX 200 per share. The offer opened on 11 October and will close on 22 November 2021.
MTN Group currently holds 96 percent of MTN Uganda. MTN Uganda CEO Wim Vanhelleputte said the m-IPO initiative is the country’s first paper-free IPO platform aimed at retail investors, in partnership with the USE, and will help position Uganda at the forefront of digitising the capital markets for Africa.
A unique digital channel will be available to retail investors for IPO subscription: the m-IPO portal, accessible via USSD and via the MyMTN App. Traditional payment channels will also be available across Uganda at Stanbic Bank, Absa Bank and Standard Chartered Bank branches and authorised selling agents.
The IPO includes a broad share incentive scheme and Ugandan retail investors in particular using the m-IPO channel are eligible to receive ten extra incentive shares for every 100 shares applied for and allocated in the IPO. The company will list its entire ordinary share capital on the Main Investment Market Segment of the USE. This will meet the requirements of MTN Uganda’s licence, which requires its listing by end-June 2022.
MTN Uganda started operating in 1998. In the first half of 2021, it had 14.9 million subscribers, 8.6 million Mobile Money users and 4.7 million active data users.
