Airtel Seeks to List on Nigerian Stock Exchange – TheNigerialawyer

* Considers $1bn London listing

Airtel Africa Ltd, a subsidiary of Indian telecoms group, Bharti
Airtel Ltd, is considering a stock market flotation in London,
designed to expand its data and mobile money services across
Africa.

The telecoms company has also indicated interest to list on the
Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which is one of the 14 countries
where it currently operates.

When listed on the NSE, Airtel will become the second
telecommunication company in Nigeria to be so listed.
Nigeria’s biggest telecommunication by market share, MTN, on May
16, 2019 listed 20.35 billion shares on the Nigerian bourse at N99
per share.

Airtel Africa is aiming to raise about $1 billion in a June
equity offering, a source close to the deal said.
Airtel operates in 14 African markets, including Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Uganda
and Zambia.

Last year, the telecom operator raised $1.25 billion from six
global investors, including SoftBank Group Corp, Warburg Pincus LLC
and Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd.
A further $200 million was raised in January from the Qatar
Investment Authority (QIA), valuing the company just under $5
billion.

A report by Reuters said Airtel Africa is looking to trade on
the main market of the London Stock Exchange, using its premium
listing segment, which has more stringent rules than the European
Union’s minimum requirements, and sell 25 per cent of new shares to
reduce existing debts.

The cash injection from current investors has already helped to
reduce Airtel Africa’s net debt to $4 billion in March, compared to
$7.7 billion in the previous year.

Its net income reached $83 million in the year to March,
compared to a net loss of $49 million a year earlier.
The Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Raghunath Mandava, in
a statement, said: “The 14 countries where we operate offer strong
GDP growth potential and have young and fast-growing populations,
low customer and data penetration and inadequate banking
infrastructure. These fast-growing markets provide us a great
opportunity to grow both our telecom and payments businesses.”

Indian owner, Bharti Airtel, last year ditched the Initial
Public Offering (IPO) of African mobile phone mast firm Helios
Towers, without giving any reason.
A source said at that time the expected IPO price was too low for
shareholders who had been valuing the firm at as much as $2.8
billion, according to Reuters.

Proceeds from the European IPO market have fallen to their
lowest in more than a decade in the first three months of 2019,
Reuters quoted data from Refinitiv as revealing.
Airtel Africa’s debut on the London market would follow that of
Middle Eastern payments companies, Finablr and Network
International, which started trading over the past couple of
months.

The company has appointed JP Morgan, Citigroup Inc, BofA Merrill
Lynch, Absa Group Limited, Barclays Bank PLC, HSBC, BNP Paribas,
Goldman Sachs International and Standard Bank Group Ltd as
advisers.

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