MTN Nigeria has confirmed its board of directors have agreed to proceed with preparations to list the company’s shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and has set up a management task team to oversee the process.
According to a statement issued by the mobile operator, the company has undertaken to list “as soon as commercially and legally possible.”
The company says it is aiming to complete the process in 2017, but this is subject to suitable market conditions.
MTN Nigeria has appointed Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited (together with its affiliates, The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Standard Advisory London Limited) (collectively “Stanbic”) and Citigroup Global Markets Limited (“Citi”) as its Joint Transaction Advisors and Joint Global Coordinators with Stanbic acting as Lead Issuing House.
The operator also said it would be appointing local receiving agents, receiving banks and other advisers.
On 10 June 2016 MTN Nigeria announced that, as part of a settlement arrangement with the Federal Government of Nigeria, it would take immediate steps to ensure the listing of its shares on the NSE.
The company has also pointed out that the announcement “does not constitute an intention to float MTN Nigeria” and it will make further announcements in this regard.
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In June MTN paid the first of six instalments as part of a US$1.671 billion settlement agreement reached with Nigerian authorities regarding its original US$5.2 billion fine, imposed in October 2015 for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.
According to an ITWeb report, the mobile operator has advised shareholders that it anticipates negative interim HEPS (headline earnings per share) and EPS (basic earnings per share), impacted by under-performance from its Nigerian and South African operations.
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