MTN Nigeria discussed plans to list on the Lagos stock exchange at a board meeting on Wednesday and aims to launch the IPO this year, Reuters reported.
Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator had planned to list its Nigerian unit in 2017, as part of an agreement with the Nigerian government, but delayed the IPO due to market conditions.
The telecoms firm has now revived those plans and is considering hiring a public relations firm to manage communications ahead of the listing in Nigeria in addition to its South African advisers, the source said.
MTN has about 51.4 million subscribers in Nigeria, which accounts for about a third of its revenue.
“There’s a lot of preparation going on due to the listing, which is expected to happen this year,” the source told Reuters.
Group Chief Executive Rob Shuter was attending the two-day meeting, which began on Wednesday.
MTN has appointed Stanbic IBTC Capital, Standard Bank of South Africa, Standard Advisory London and Citigroup Global Markets, as joint transaction advisors and global coordinators, with Stanbic acting as lead issuer.
BusinessDay reported exclusively last month that recent new highs reached by Nigeria’s stock market may force advisers to the proposed MTN Nigeria shares listing to re-enter their boardrooms for updated valuations ahead of the expected pricing of shares.
The Nigerian stock market rose by 42 percent last year and it has achieved about 16 percent growth year to date.
The MSCI Frontier Markets Index which includes major Nigerian stocks trades at 13.2 times the 12-month estimated profits of its member companies, almost double the 6.5 times forward earnings it traded at the beginning of 2017, according to Bloomberg data.
BusinessDay sources at MTN Nigeria confirmed in January that the company is more likely to list on the NSE by May 2018. “MTN is taking steps to fulfil its promise to list its Nigerian Unit on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by May 2018 despite the current challenges in Nigeria’s telecoms industry,” the BusinessDay source said.
