MTN Ghana, the largest telecommunications company in the country with with 15.7million subscribers, is expected to be localized, allowing Ghanaians investors as shareholders by listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange by June 2018, according to MTN Group.
The move is under the terms of MTN Ghana’s 4G licence its agreed with the government and the regulator National Communications Authority (NCA).
In the groups 2017 financial results which was released, under listings in its overview it said a key objective of the listing on the GSE is to target a broad base of Ghanaian investors to share in the risks and rewards of ownership of MTN Ghana.
“MTN Ghana is also moving forward with its localisation and we expect this process to be completed in the first half of 2018. Under the terms of its 4G licence, MTN Ghana is required to introduce Ghanaian investors as shareholders.
As a result, the MTN Group board has approved a public offer through a listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), subject to final approval by the GSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission in Ghana. A key objective of the listing is to target a broad base of Ghanaian investors to share in the risks and rewards of ownership of MTN Ghana.”
This news comes after the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), in February this year announced that, MTN Ghana, have submitted its prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the GSE to float 35 percent of its shares on the local bourse.
The listing of the mobile giant is expected to improve the GSE Composite Index which is a major stock market index which tracks the performance of all companies traded on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
In the report the group also disclosed that, Nigeria was also said, “MTN Nigeria continues to make good progress with the preparations for its listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Extensive local marketing to target Nigerian investors is planned as part of a retail offer and institutional bookbuild, which may also involve selected international institutions. The operation anticipates that the listing will take place during 2018 subject to appropriate market conditions and requisite regulatory approval.”
“MTN Nigeria has engaged with Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission and the NSE extensively on the structure and parameters of the listing. The operation has also obtained its shareholders’ approval in principle to prepare for the listing, including amendments to its corporate structure. It is expected that the application to the NSE will commence in due course and management has already initiated its Corporate Governance Rating Scoring with the NSE with a view to listing on the NSE’s Premium Board. Any reduction in ownership by MTN Group in MTN Nigeria is expected to be limited,” the statement added.
MTN Ghana Financial Position
The report revealed that, MTN Ghana continued to benefit from a positive macro-economic environment and closed the year with a subscriber base of 15,7 million following the internal review of subscriber definitions.
The translated into 24% increase in its 2017 performance as the company made 3.4 billion cedis.
Focused value propositions and improving NPS supported the good subscriber growth.
MTN expects to raise US$1bn from Ghana, Nigeria listing
Strong growth in revenue, up by 23,3%*, was underpinned by data and digital revenue growth.
Data revenue increased by 50,6%*, supported by re-pricing that was implemented in the second half.
The business reported active data subscribers of 6,5 million which saw the digital revenue grew by 37,7%*, with the number of active MoMo subscribers expanding by 25,7% to 7,1 million.
In the year, MoMo made up 13,6% of revenue.
The company also disclosed that it paid about one billion cedis in taxes to the government of Ghana, representing 3 percent of total tax collected in 2017.
Mergers in telecom Industry
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Ebenezer Asante is predicting more mergers among smaller telcos in the country as he thinks the telecom industry in Ghana is too small for the current number of telcos that operates in.
“The external partnership you talked about. For me, it is good. It is something that we predicted four years ago. Is that the end of consolidations? not at all. We will see one or two more”.
He stated that he wasn’t surprised after the merger of Tigo and Airtel since it had been envisaged long ago.