MTN set to be listed at Nigerian Stock Exchange

Nigeria’s largest GSM company, MTN Nigeria, will be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) onThursday, May 16, 2019. 

“As followers of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, we have waited for years for this to happen and we are glad to finally see this long-awaited announcement come alive”. Said analysts at TIDDO Securities Limited.

The implication is that, by listing MTN on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, its shares can now be traded everyday by buyers and sellers. Until, now this was not possible as its shares were held privately by its investors in Nigeria.

The listing price gives the unit a market value of as much as ₦1.8-trillion (about R71-billion), making it the second-biggest public firm in Africa’s main oil producer after Dangote Cement. It will be the largest when measured by revenue.

MTN shares can only be bought or sold by retail and institutional investors who have a CSCS accounts with a registered stockbroker. You cannot buy MTN shares if you do not have a stock brokerage.

MTN in its latest investor conference, said it reports a return on equity of about 90 percent. 

This means it makes a profit of N90 for every equity of N100 it invests.

New investors that will buy into MTN are expected to harvest a bumper return. MTN said, it pays over 80 per cent of its profits as dividends as stated in their policy. It is also likely to list at N90 (and expected to climb as investors scramble for the shares).

What price is great? Analysts at TIDDOSecuritiesLimited said, “there is no official information about the price, but going by the fundamentals, MTN might be listed at N90.

analysts believe, this is just the beginning, hoping to pursue a future public offer giving more Nigerians greater access to the MTN opportunity.

Africa’s biggest mobile phone company registered 20.35 billion ordinary shares with Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission recently. It plans to list around 20 per cent of those on the bourse.

The listing, many believed, was a condition of MTN’s settlement agreement with Nigerian authorities following a more than US$1-billion fine from the Nigerian Communications Commission for failing to disconnect more than five million unregistered Sim cards, comes after a torrid few years for the telecommunications group in the West African nation.

MTN Nigeria, in which the South African firm has a 78.8 per cent stake and Nigerian investors hold 19.4 per cent, has faced increased government pressure to lift the level of local ownership.

To patch up ties with Nigeria’s authorities, MTN agreed in December to make a $53 million payment to resolve a row over a multi-billion dollar dividend repatriation that hammered share prices in Johannesburg.

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