MTN Nigeria Communications Plc will lift the market capitalisation of the Nigerian equities market by N1.836 trillion as Nigeria’s largest telecommunications company lists its shares on the premium board of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).
The listing will automatically increase the aggregate market value of all quoted equities at the NSE from the opening value of N10.627 trillion to N12.463 trillion.
MTN Nigeria will be listing 20.4 billion ordinary shares of 2.0 kobo at a price of N90 per share. This gives the telco initial entry capitalisation of N1.836 trillion. By way of introduction, MTN Nigeria’s existing shares will be admitted to the Daily Official List of the Exchange for trading.
Basically, existing shareholders will be the ones driving trading on MTN Nigeria in the short term. The shareholding structure at the time of listing will be 78.8 per cent by the MTN Group and 19.4 per cent by Nigerians.
Analysts at Capital Bancorp said they expected MTN Nigeria’s share price to rise further, noting that while it is not impossible for the share price to fall below N90, it is highly unlikely.
“The listing price has been set at N90 per share. The listing price of N90 is just to establish an opening price for MTN shares. It is expected that the price would likely rise at least in the short term because of the first quarter financial results that have been published; as well as the information on a dividend payout ratio of at least 80 per cent of its net income in the medium term,” Capital Bancorp stated.
Cordros Securities indicated it will be offering live online trading on its online trading portal immediately the MTN Nigeria’s shares are listed.
MTN Nigeria had in 2016 appointed an advisory team and set out a roadmap towards listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2017. The telco however missed the 2017 target and has since been struggling with the listing.
The board of MTN Nigeria had announced the appointment of Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited and its affiliates, Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Standard Advisory London Limited and Citigroup Global Markets Limited as the joint transaction advisors and joint global coordinators for the proposed listing of MTN Nigeria on the NSE.
It should be recalled that as part of the conditions to settle its $3.4 billion fine by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), MTN Nigeria had announced its intention to list its shares on the NSE as soon as commercially and legally possible.
