(3 Minutes read)
- MTN unveiled a public offer of just under 3 percent of shares in MTN Nigeria. Nigeria is MTNs biggest market, going by the number of subscribers
- Â Â The telecom major is on track to reduce holding company debt, raising hopes of dividends after a two-year break
- MTN plans to sell up to 575 million shares in MTN Nigeria (101.1 billion naira) R3.7bn as part of its focus to ‘further localize’
MTN unveiled a public offer of just under 3 percent of shares in MTN Nigeria. Nigeria is MTNs biggest market, going by the number of subscribers. The telecom major is on track to reduce holding company debt, raising hopes of dividends after a two-year break.
MTN plans to sell up to 575 million shares in MTN Nigeria (101.1 billion naira) R3.7bn as part of its focus to ‘further localise’. With this, the company is inching towards its objective to localize 14 percent of the group’s holding in MTN Nigeria over the short to medium term. The offer is expected to close next month. In July MTN announced plans to sell 14 percent of its MTN Nigeria shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and is  targeting retail investors in Nigeria as a part of its localization effort.
MTN Nigeria has 67.5 million mobile subscribers to become the largest telecom network in the most populous West African country. It may be recalled that the telecom major had  lost 7.5 million mobile subscribers as a result of the SIM registration restrictions at the end of September following an alleged scam.
MTN listed MTN Nigeria on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2019 as part of the settlement agreement with the Nigerian regulators. It was slapped with a record US$5.2bn (R80bn) fine for unregistered SIM cards in 2015 although the fine was subsequently reduced to US$3.2bn.
