MTN to open Sh132bn Uganda IPO to Kenyan investors

MTN booths in Kampala, Uganda. FILE PHOTO | NMG

MTN Uganda will sell a fifth of its stake to Kenyan and other East African investors when it floats its initial public offer (IPO) on the Kampala bourse.

The telecom, a South African MTN Group subsidiary, said Tuesday that it had received regulatory approvals to list 20 percent of its shareholding.

The firm said Tuesday that it would disclose details of the offer in its prospectus to be released on October 11.

But, Uganda’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Keith Kalyegira said the IPO is expected to raise about Sh132 billion ($1.2 billion).

“The intention to float announcement is a major step towards delivering on our plan to list on the USE,” MTN Uganda chairman Charles Mbire told reporters.

Investors

The widely anticipated stake sale of the leading telecom in Uganda will be restricted to citizens of the East African Community trading bloc, Ugandan regulators said earlier.

Besides Kenya and Uganda, the other members of the EAC are Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

The IPO is expected to boost the number of retail investors at the Uganda Securities Exchange from about 40,000 to 200,000 investors.

The listing will make MTN Uganda the second publicly traded telecom in EAC after Safaricom’s #ticker:SCOM IPO on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008.

“This will potentially be the largest IPO on the Ugandan market and will be delivered primarily through a digital paperless/ green platform which is the first of its kind in East Africa,” said MTN Uganda in a statement.