MTN Raises GHC1.1b In IPO

MTN Ghana could not sell all the shares it made available in its initial public offering, Bloomberg has reported.

According to Bloomberg, MTN Ghana raised 1.1 billion cedis ($236 million) selling about a third of the shares it made available.

MTN, Africa’s biggest mobile-phone company by subscribers, sold 1.5 billion securities of the 4.6 billion shares at 75 pesewas each when it offered a 35 percent stake in the unit in May, the document showed. The shares will be listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange with trading due to start Sept. 5, according to the sale’s prospectus.

A spokeswoman for MTN Ghana, according to Bloomberg, declined to comment.

Although the telecom giant failed to sell all the shares on offer, the proceeds are more than three times larger than the previous biggest IPO in Ghana, when Agricultural Development Bank Ltd. raised 326 million cedis in December 2016. The IPO result comes as MTN fights a surprise order late Wednesday from Nigeria’s central bank to refund $8.1 billion it says was repatriated improperly from the country over eight years through 2015.

Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/ with additional files from Bloomberg