MTN Nigeria allots incentive shares to 120,359 retail investors

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc has announced the allotment of incentive shares to qualified shareholders.

According to a statement seen by BusinessDay, Uto Ukpanah, company secretary of MTN Nigeria Communications, said the offer included an incentive of one ordinary share for every 20 ordinary shares purchased.

He added that the incentive shares are allotted to a maximum of 250 ordinary shares to encourage retail investors.

In 2021, MTN had promised one free share for every 20 shares bought — with maximum free shares of 250 per investor.

The company had said the incentive shares would not be allotted to investors until January 31, 2023, after one year of holding as stipulated in the terms of the public offer.

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Ukpanah, in the statement, said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cleared the offer allotment and 120,359 investors have been given the incentive.

“As disclosed in the offer prospectus, the incentive became effective on January 31, 2023 (the qualification date), being 12 months following the SEC’s clearance of the offer allotment,” the statement reads.

“The shareholders who qualified for the incentive shares are those who purchased and were allotted at least 20 ordinary shares in the offer; held some or all the shares allotted at the offer as at the qualification date, 31 January 2023 but subject to holding at least 20 ordinary shares; and whose names appeared in the register of members at the qualification date.

“Consequently, 120,359 investors, representing 94.77 percent of those who participated in the offer, qualified to receive the incentive shares totalling 3,977,418 ordinary shares of MTN Nigeria. This brings the total shares allotted through the offer to approximately 665.23 million.”