MTN welcomes over 6.6m Nigerians as shareholders

Following its third Annual General Meeting which was held on April 28, 2022, MTN Nigeria resolved its dividend payment in the total sum of N174.53billion which translates to N8.57 Kobo per every 2 kobo ordinary share to be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the Company’s Register of Members at the close of business on Wednesday, 6 April 2022 (bringing the total dividend for the year ended 31 December, 2021 to N13.12, subject to withholding tax.

At the event, the leading technology company revealed the results of its first public offer on a digital platform. The initial 575 million share units offer was exceeded with an oversubscription rate of 139.47percent. In order to manage this surge in subscription, MTN Nigeria added 86.25million share units to the initial share units.

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In all, 661.25 million MTN Nigeria shares were allotted and a total of 126,720 retail investors submitted valid applications and received full allotment. Other institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers, corporates, and foreign portfolio investors who participated in the bookbuild were allotted 72.09percent of their applications. This includes Nigerian pension funds representing approximately 6.5 million Nigerian contributors. Nigerian investors across the country supported the Offer through multiple channels such as Receiving Agents, Issuing Houses and Primary Offer, that is the digital application platform. More than 89percent of retail offer subscribers applied through the Primary Offer platform (via mobile and web).

In addition, 114,938 new Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) accounts were opened by first-time investors. It was estimated that 76percent of the successful subscribers to the public share offer via the digital platform are women while 85percent of these are below the age of 40.

Speaking on the opportunity that the public share offers to Nigerians, Ernest Ndukwe, Chairman, MTN Nigeria said: “There was no better way for us to commemorate our 20th anniversary than by giving more Nigerians the opportunity to participate in our future success, in line with our Ambition 2025 commitment to shared value. To do this, we launched an offer for the sale of 575 million shares held by the MTN Group in MTN Nigeria Communications Plc in November 2021. It also leveraged an innovative digital platform to maximise participation, while many of Nigeria’s institutional investors also participated in the bookbuild phase of the offer.”

The incentives for all investors include 1 free share for every 20 purchased, subject to a maximum of 250 free shares per investor. Also, an additional 4.28 million MTN Nigeria shares will be allotted to qualifying investors who hold the shares allotted to them for 12 months till January 31, 2023.

Whilst commenting on the Offer, Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria said: “We are delighted to welcome so many new shareholders to the MTN family, up 11.6 times from the number before the offer. It has been inspiring to see so many Nigerians, many of whom are young, acquire shares for the first time, and use a digital platform to do so.’’