By Favour Nnabugwu
Nigeria’s largest telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria Communications (MTN Nigeria) Plc has disclosed it’s plan to expand Nigerians participation in the shareholding of the company through a public offer.
The company will yesterday opened subscription for its public offering of 575 million ordinary shares to the general retail investing public at a price of N169 per share.
The offer period ends on December 14, 2021.
Minimum subscription is 20 shares and thereafter in multiples of 20 shares.
The offer includes a bonus share of one share for every 20 shares bought by a retail investor subject to maximum bonus shares of 250 per investor.
However, to qualify for the free share such retail investors must hold the shares allotted to them after the allotment date for at least a period of 12 months.
The public offer is an offer for sale by MTN Group, which is divesting part of its shares in MTN Nigeria to allow Nigerian institutional and retail investors to buy equities in the telecommunications giant.
The book building for institutional investors was done last week with a price range of N165 and N175.
Beside the inclusion of bonus share in the public offer, the MTN Nigeria’s public offer is also setting record as the first to be delivered through a digital platform, thus facilitating maximum participation by investors.
Speaking to journalists during virtual media. debrief, Karl Olutokun Toriola, MTN Chief Executive Of-ficer explained that the offer is not an exit of the company from the country but a move to ensure more Nigerians participation in MTN shareholding base. He said, “To be clear, we are not raising capital. This is a sell down by MTN group of its shareholding in a structured process from just under 79% to 65%.
