MTN customer care staff attend to subscribers at a past expo. The telco has begun trading on the Uganda Securities Exchange. PHOTO | FILE Analysts say the regulator’s move to ease listing rules, saved MTN Uganda from failing to list shares on the exchange.
Last month, MTN Uganda opted to sell a fifth of its stake to East African investors when it floated its initial public offer (IPO) on the Kampala bourse
Uganda’s Capital Markets Authority CEO Keith Kalyegira said the IPO is expected to raise about $1.2 billion.
MTN Uganda last week started trading its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE), gaining 2.5 percent following the listing of the stock.
Analysts say the regulator’s move to ease listing rules, saved MTN Uganda from failing to list shares on the exchange.
“Where the exchange waives the requirement for a company to list with float below 20 percent threshold such company (issuer) shall have up to a maximum of three years within which to meet the requisite float threshold,” Paul Bwiso, USE chief executive said while quoting USE Listing Rules 2021
This means the under-subscription made it difficult for Uganda’s biggest telecom company to be listed on the USE main market.
Last month, MTN Uganda opted to sell a fifth of its stake to East African investors when it floated its initial public offer (IPO) on the Kampala bourse. The company had received regulatory approvals to list 20 percent of its shareholding.
Uganda’s Capital Markets Authority CEO Keith Kalyegira said the IPO is expected to raise about $1.2 billion.
“The announcement float shares is a major step towards delivering on our plan to list on the USE,” MTN Uganda Chairman Charles Mbire said.
The IPO was expected to boost the number of retail investors at the Uganda Securities Exchange from about 40,000 to 200,000.The listing also makes MTN Uganda the second publicly traded telecom in East African Community after Safaricom’s IPO on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008.At least 35 percent or 1.575 billion of MTNs shares were not taken up by investors, in what MTN Uganda Chief Executive Wim Vanhelleputte blamed on investors’ shying away from the stock on Initial Public Offering drying in Uganda for the past 10 years.While the promoters expected to raise $250 million fresh capital from the IPO, only $151 million was raised from the sale of 2.9 billion shares.Uganda’s National Social Security Fund growing appetite for shares in East African […]
