MTN’s Public Offer Oversubscribed by 139.47%

Emma Okonji

The Series 1 offer for sale of 575 million shares held by the MTN Group in MTN Nigeria (the Offer) to Nigerian investors, which held last December, has been successfully completed and was oversubscribed by 139.47 per cent, which is an additional 82.25 million MTN Nigeria shares.
The oversubscription raised the initial number of shares sold from 575 million to a total of 661.25 million shares.
The Offer was implemented by way of a bookbuild to qualified institutional investors and a fixed price offer of N169.00 per share to retail investors.
A breakdown of the sale shows that approximately 76 per cent of successful applicants via digital platform were women, thus making women to lead digitally, while 85 per cent of the sale were from under age 40.
Following the successful completion of the Offer, MTN Group’s shareholding in MTN Nigeria reduced by 3.25 percentage points, from 78.83 per cent to 75.58 per cent.
According to a statement released Tuesday by MTN Nigeria and signed by the Company’s Secretary, Uto Ukpanah, the offer was oversubscribed with valid applications for a total of 801.97 million units, leading to the activation of the approved 15 per cent over-subscription clause of an additional 86.25 million MTN Nigeria shares. In all, 661.25 million MTN Nigeria shares were allotted. A total of 126,720 retail investors submitted valid applications and received full allotment. Institutional investors including pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers, corporates, and foreign portfolio investors that participated in the bookbuild were allotted 72.09 per cent of their applications. This includes Nigerian pension funds representing approximately 6.5 million Nigerian contributors.
In line with the innovative incentive structure of 1 free share for every 20 purchased, subject to a maximum of 250 free shares per investor, an additional 4.28 million MTN Nigeria shares will be allotted to qualifying investors who hold the shares allotted to them for 12 months till 31 January 2023.
According to the statement, MTN Group adopted a unique structure in the offering by determining a fixed price of N169 per share for the retail offer through a Bookbuild to Qualified Investors that was completed on 26 November 2021. The fixed price offer to Retail Investors was at a discount of 11 per cent to the closing price of MTN Nigeria stock on the day the Bookbuild was completed. The Offer commenced on 1 December 2021 and was completed on 14 December 2021. Nigerian investors across the country supported the Offer through multiple channels – Receiving Agents, Issuing Houses and PrimaryOffer (a digital application platform).”
The CEO of MTN Group, Ralph Mupita, said: “We are pleased that this Offer has given so many Nigerians the opportunity to become owners of MTN Nigeria. With over 6.6 million Nigerians directly or indirectly becoming shareholders in MTN Nigeria, the objective of broadening the shareholder base, and creating shared value has been achieved. We are proud that our Offer was the first Nigerian public offer to use the digital application platform, PrimaryOffer, which enabled wider investor participation across Nigeria. We thank the Nigerian authorities for their support of this Offer. We remain committed to playing our humble role in driving digital and financial inclusion in Nigeria over the medium.”
Commenting on the Offer, the CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, said: “We are delighted to welcome so many new shareholders to the MTN family, up 11.6 times from the number before the offer. It has been inspiring to see so many Nigerians, many of whom are young, acquire shares for the first time, and use a digital platform to do so. This is the beginning of a journey to broaden our shareholding and there will be more opportunities to participate.
“We are pleased with the level of digital innovation we championed with this offer with the active collaboration of our lead issuing house and the various regulatory bodies. Deepening retail participation in Nigeria’s capital markets is a process, and we are off to a great start, demonstrating the role digital platforms can play in expanding access. I am particularly pleased that we completed this transaction in an accelerated time frame ensuring new shareholders can realize value almost immediately through participation in our 2021 full-year dividend.”