MTN Uganda Limited has Monday announced the opening of its initial public offer (IPO) of 20% of its ordinary shares, following approvals by the Capital Markets Authority of Uganda (CMA) and the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).

The secondary sale of 4.4 billion shares by the MTN Group will be at an offer price of UGX200 per share. The offer opens today, Monday 11 October 2021, and will close on Monday 22 November 2021. MTN Group currently holds 96% of MTN Uganda.

“With the opening of the IPO we are one step closer to our goal of broad ownership of our business across the Ugandan population,” said MTN Uganda Chief Executive Officer Wim Vanhelleputte. “Our m-IPO initiative is the country’s first paper-free IPO platform aimed at retail investors, in partnership with the USE, and will help position Uganda at the forefront of digitising the capital markets for Africa,” he added.

Yolanda Cuba, MTN Group Vice President for Southern and East Africa, said the IPO would give Ugandans an opportunity to participate in the ownership of their country’s leading mobile operator and, in doing so, help deepen Uganda’s capital markets.

“Today’s IPO is very clearly aligned with our Ambition 2025 strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress,” she said.

The offer aims to facilitate the broadest possible shareholder base in Uganda, with Ugandan Retail Investors making Applications for Offer Shares of an aggregate minimum value of UGX 5 million to be allocated the full number of Offer Shares for that minimum value applied for. A unique digital channel will be available to retail investors for IPO subscription: the m-IPO portal, accessible via USSD and via the MyMTN App. Traditional payment channels will also be available across Uganda at Stanbic Bank, Absa Bank and Standard Chartered Bank branches and authorized selling agents.

The IPO includes a broad share incentive scheme and Ugandan retail investors in particular using the m-IPO channel are eligible to receive 10 additional incentive shares for every 100 shares applied for and allocated in the IPO.

Following the successful completion of the offer, the company will list its entire ordinary share capital on the Main Investment Market Segment of the USE. This will meet the requirements of MTN Uganda’s licence, which require its listing by end-June 2022.

MTN Uganda started operating in 1998. In the first half of 2021, it had 14.9 million subscribers, 8.6 million Mobile Money users and 4.7 million active data users.

The dates noted in this announcement may be subject to change.