In the last quarter of 2019, persons discharging managerial responsibilities with Airtel Africa Plc have sold 2.17 million units of shares worth N792.83 million, according to the notice released by the company to the NSE. The first transaction involved Douglas Anderson Baillie who in October sold 20,000 units of shares at £0.6115 per share worth £12,230. The second transaction took place last week and it involved Bharti Global Limited which sold 2.15 million shares worth £1,681,845. Cumulatively, the total shares executed worth N792.83 million in Nigeria currency.
As at the end of March 2019, nine institutional investors controlled over 85 percent of Airtel Africa’s shareholding structure. Airtel Africa Mauritius Limited, the largest shareholder, controlled 68.31 percent while Warburg Group controlled 7.65 percent. Indian Continent Investment Limited, 5.46 percent; Singapore Telecom International Pte limited, 5.46 percent; Hero Inc. Limited and Qatar Holding LLC, 4.37 percent each; Evans Investment Pte Limited, 2.19 percent; SB Fast Holdings (Cayman) Limited, 2.18%, among others.
Airtel Africa Plc’s half year results ended September 30, 2019 showed strong improvements across the metrics. Customer base grew by 10.4 percent to 104 million. Revenue rose by 8.4 percent; profit before tax increased by 158.4 percent while PAT increased by 11.9 percent.
On September 9, 2019, Airtel Africa was added to FTSE 250 Index. And another development in this quarter is that the company partnered Mastercard for the purpose of facilitating payment across African countries.
“On 9 October 2019 the Group announced a partnership with Mastercard which will give Airtel Money customers the ability to make online payments globally via a virtual Airtel Money Mastercard. In addition, Airtel Money customers, even those using a feature phone, will also be able to make in-person payments at outlets via Quick Response (QR) codes. To date, there are over 1 million merchant locations across Africa that accept Mastercard QR payments, approximately 700,000 of which are in Nigeria, Airtel Africa’s largest market and where the company has already applied for a payment service bank license”, Airtel Africa announced in a notice sent to the NSE.
TELIAT SULE
