Category Archives: MTN

MTN Uganda IPO 

MTN Uganda has an ongoing IPO in which they plan to raise UGX 895 billion (US$252 million) from selling 20% of the company to local investors and floating the shares. Like in Ghana and Nigeria before, the listing of shares on the local stock exchange by the leading telecommunications firms in the countries, has become a licensing requirement, and MTN, which signed a new 12-year license in 2019, is doing this ahead of a June 2022 deadline.

Looking at the IPO prospectus, and extracts from an MTN executive briefing in Nairobi this week, some of the highlights of the offer are: 

  • About MTN Uganda: Founded in 1998, it is the largest of two telcos in the country with a 55% market share compared with 45%  for Airtel. It is the most admired brand in the country and part of the MTN Group that is in 27 African countries and one of the largest brands on the continent. MTN Uganda had 2020 revenue of  UGX 1.88 trillion (about $531 million) and a pre-tax profit of 460 billion ($130 million). It has 15.7 million phone subscribers, with 5.3 million active data users and 9.4 million mobile money users.
  • Uganda Market: In the densely-populated country of 44 million people, MTN sees much more growth from the young population, as the current mobile penetration of 67% is considered low for Africa. Also, wIth Africell having exited in October 2021 and  Smart Telecom about to follow suit, MTN’s market share could reach 60%.  
  • Offer: 4.47 billion ordinary shares, accounting for 20% of the company are on sale at UGX 200.00 ($0.057) per share. The minimum lot is 500 shares, so the investment required is UGX 100,000  ($28) per shareholder. 
  • Allocation: All East African community shareholders are being offered 5 incentive shares for every 100 they buy, but MTN customers who apply on the IPO platform and pay with MTN mobile money get another 5, for a total of 10 incentive shares. Ten (10) incentive shares for every 100 bought are also being offered to Uganda professional and East Africa professional investors who purchase shares worth over UGX 177 billion ($50 million). If oversubscribed, Uganda retail investors and MTN employees will be given priority and allocated up to UGX 5 million ($1,414), with others on a pro-rata basis, in the order of Uganda professional investors, then East African investors, and finally international other investors. MTN has received approval to market the shares to investors in Tanzania and Kenya, and they await clearance from other EAC countries. The offer may be suspended if it does not reach 25% uptake (about 1.12 billion shares)
  • USE: The MTN shares will be listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange. Currently, its largest counter is Stanbic Bank Uganda, that had its IPO in 2006, and accounts for about half the market activity, but MTN are expected to overtake them after listing their 22.39 billion shares in December.
  • IPO Applications: The process is fully electronic and starts by applying online to open a securities central depository (SCD) account. This can also be via USSD on an MTN line, or via the MTN app or at an authorized selling agent. In  Kenya,  investors can apply through a stockbroker like Dyer & Blair who will verify their ID and PIN details. The minimum to buy is Kshs 3,250 at Dyer & Blair, which is for 500 shares at Kshs 6.50 per share.
  • Shareholding changes: Ahead of the IPO, currently MTN Group owns 21.5 billion shares (96%) and the MTN Chairman, Charles Mbire, a Ugandan businessman who also chairs the USE, owns the other 4%. After the IPO, MTN will have 76% and new investors will have 20%, and MTN, Chairman Mbire, and the directors have committed not to sell any more shares for the next year. MTN Group will still exercise controller the composition of the board, and acquisition, financing, and branding decisions.
  • Taxes: MTN Uganda is the largest taxpayer in the country and they paid a disputed amount of transitional license fee totaliing UGX 50 billion ($14.1 million) ahead of the IPO.
  • Use of Funds and Debts The funds raised will go to reimburse MTN who have grown the business since inception by investing over one trillion shillings and who have also committed to investing another trillion over the next three years expanding the network, mainly in rural Uganda for other growth activities. MTN Uganda’s debt is UGX 194 billion (equivalent to about $55 million) and $45 million at June 2021. MTN Group has arranged a syndicated loan, through Stanbic South Africa, with local banks in Uganda – Stanbic, Absa Citi and Standard Chartered.
  • Fintech opportunities: The country was reported to have 31.3 mobile money accounts but after a cleanup exercise, the number of active subscribers was determined to be 20.3 million. MTN’s mobile money has 45,000 merchants customers signed on, it sees a great opportunity to grow that market that it predicts can be ten times larger. They will also roll out bank tech products – savings, loans and insurance – and compete with banks at the bottom of the pyramid.
  • Dividend: Payout was 57% of profits in 2018 and 2019.  
  • Threats: Price competition may affect average revenue per user and profit margins, and a weakness identified is the low income of consumers.
  • Timelines: The IPO runs for just over one month. It opened on October 11 and closes on November 22, with an announcement of the results on December 3 and listing on December 6. Refunds, if any, will be paid from December 3. 
  • Transaction advisors: SBG Securities Uganda is the transaction advisor and lead sponsoring broker. Receiving banks are Stanbic, Standard Chartered and Absa in Uganda. Selling agents are SBG Uganda, Dyer & Blair Uganda, Crested Capital and UAP Old Mutual. In Kenya, these are SBG Securities and Dyer and Blair.
  • Offer Costs: Budget is UGX 32.6 billion with MTN International expected to foot 22.3 billion and MTN Uganda the other 10.3 billion. The bulk of the payments are the placement fees (UGX 9.9 billion) and the transaction advisor (7.5 billion). Others are VAT on professional fees (3.6 billion), while the tax advisors in SA and Uganda will earn a total of 4.2 billion. There is also the reimbursement of selling agents of retail shares (4.2 billion) and the public relations bill to MTN Uganda is UGX 356 million.
  • Valuation:  With the shares offered at UGX 200, Dyer & Blair advise a “buy” with a target market price of UGX 218, a 9% upside from the current offer. And when incentive shares are factored in, this makes the value of the shares almost 15% higher than the IPO offer.
  • Verdict: The euphoria could be similar to the Safaricom IPO in Kenya, whose investors are also yearning for another large IPO.

Read more at the MTN Uganda IPO official website.

EDIT December 3, 2021: Offical MTN Uganda IPO results show a 64.8% subscription as 2.90 billion of the 4.4 billion shares were taken up by 21,394 investors. This includes sale shares and incentive shares.

The IPO grossed UGX 536 billion (approx $150 million) and all applicants will receive their full allocation, with the shares listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange from 6th December.

Shareholding announced with IPO results: MTN International (Mauritius) 18.594 billion shares (83.05%), National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Uganda 1.98 billion shares (8.84%), Charles Mbire 892.23 million shares (3.99%), NSSF – Sanlam (0.26%), Bank of Uganda defined benefits Scheme – Sanlam (0.19%), National Social Security Fund (Kenya) – Sanlam (0.18%), Duet Africa Opportunities Master Fund IC (0.13%), EFG Hermes Oman (0.12%), First Rand Bank (0.10%), and the Uganda Revenue Authority staff benefits scheme – Sanlam (0.08%). Other shareholders have 684.47 million shares (3.06%), for a total of 22.389 billion shares.

More here.

MTN Nigeria Listing

MTN Nigeria has received approval and will proceed to list its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on May 16, 2019. The company entered a settlement in December 2018 paying $53 million to the Government of Nigeria out of $8.1 billion tax demand and the listing is believed to be an extension of this process.

MTN entered Nigeria in 2001 and it has grown to be a key market for the Group. It accounts for 55 million of their total 210 million subscribers in Africa and the Middle East. 25% of their subscribers are in Nigeria compared to 13% in SA. They get 30% of revenue from Nigeria, compared to 29% from SA, with Nigeria growing in the double digits. MTN which has 79 million data customers and 27 million mobile money customers in 2018, plans to introduce mobile money in South Africa, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Sudan this year.

The Group owns 75.81% of MTN Nigeria through a Mauritius company while Nigerian shareholders own 18.7% through special purpose vehicles. 1.76% is owned by the Public Investment Corporation of South Africa.

With its shares introduced at 90 Naira each, based on recent private share sales, MTN Nigeria is valued at about $5 billion. All shares of the company are being listed and all shareholders will be able to trade their shares. MTN plans to get more Nigerians to increase their stake in the company to about 35% through the listing and a public offer that may follow. Besides Nigeria, the Group also plans to increase local ownership of its operations in Uganda and Zambia during 2019.

Edit February 2022: MTN Group completed the sale of 575 million shares to Nigerian investors – both qualified institutional investors and retail investors. The offer was oversubscribed 1.4x with 126,000 investors applying for 802 million shares. It contained a 15% green shoe option – so 661 million shares were allocated to investors and raised 4.3 billion rand (approx $280 million). 

Nigeria fines MTN’s Banks over Forex breach

A few weeks after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed local commercial banks to refund foreign currency (forex) it says telecommunications giant MTN had banked through them, the CBN has gone ahead to debit the accounts of two banks it cited for facilitating what it termed as illegal capital repatriation from Nigeria.

The banks mentioned were Standard Chartered, Stanbic IBTC,  Citibank, and  Diamond Bank which were all directed to refund a total sum of $8.13 billion for breaching Nigeria’s forex rules on behalf of MTN.

It was later reported that the CBN had debited N2.4 billion ($7.9 million) in fines from Standard Chartered and N1.2 billion from Citigroup. The CBN spokesman said they had investigated the remittance of forex by the banks related to irregular certificates of capital importation (CCI’s) issued to offshore investors of MTN and concluded that $3.45 billion was repatriated by Standard Chartered Bank, $2.6 billion by Stanbic IBTC, $1.7 billion by Citibank Nigeria and $348 million by Diamond Bank between 2007 and 2015.

MTN had been in talks to raise funds, possible do an IPO in Nigeria which is their largest market, like a recent one in Ghana. In various statements to shareholders on the matter, MTN said they are a law-abiding corporate citizen and that the issue of historic dividends allegedly repatriated by MTN Nigeria between 2007 and 2015 had been investigated and concluded at the Nigerian senate which found that there was no collusion to contravene forex laws.

MTN’s has since sued the CBN and Attorney General of Nigeria to restrain them from taking further action against assets of the company.

EDIT: December 24, 2018:

After discussions between the Central Bank and MTN, a settlement deal was arrived at which will see MTN pay just US$53.2 million,  a tiny fraction of the $8.1 billion the Bank had sought from the group’s subsidiary in the West African country.

EDIT: Jan 10 2020: The Attorney General of Nigeria withdrew the $2 billion tax demand against MTN Nigeria.

To be updated

MTN Ghana IPO

EDIT September 5 2018:  MTN Ghana shares listed on September 5.  Bloomberg reports that Africa’s largest mobile-phone company sold 1.5 billion shares in its Ghana unit at 75 pesewas each, a large addition to potential volumes on a market where 323 million shares were traded in the whole of 2017, according to data from the bourse. Of the 128,152 new shareholders who bought stock in MTN Ghana, 127,653 are retail investors. The exchange had 976,068 investors in equity and debt securities last year. On Wednesday, the stock closed unchanged after more than 5 million shares were traded.

Original June 4: MTN Ghana the leading Telco in that country has just launched an IPO as part of a requirement for obtaining a 4G license in 2015 and which has resulted in the offer of 35% ownership in the company to Ghanaian investors and with the shares listed thereafter.

MTN Ghana: It is the largest telco company in Ghana with 17.8 million subscribers, and with an estimated 47% market share and 12 million data customers. MTN Ghana had 2017 revenue of  GHS 3.42 billion (about $728 million) and a net profit of GHS 715 million ($152 million). They target is to pay put 60% of profit as dividends. It is part of the MTN Group that has 217 million customers across 22 Africa and the Middle East countries such as Uganda, South Sudan South Africa Sudan (not Kenya but for a corporate business unit), and it is the largest telco in 14 of these countries.

Looking at the IPO documents in an A to Z format:  

Ghana:  Ghana is the second biggest economy in West Africa. It has a population of 28 million, and a recent average economic growth rate of 7.0% per year. Ghana has a mobile penetration of 130% (38 million customers), and besides MTN, other companies are Airtel, Tigo, Vodafone and Glo.

GSE: The MTN Ghana shares, which will trade as MTNGH, will be listed on the Ghana stock exchange, which operates three markets including a main market with 34 listed equities, an alternative market and a fixed income market.

IPO Applications: Ghanaians can subscribe for the new shares through MTN USSD app, online, or at MTN branches. Payment options are by cash, cheque, MTN money, bank transfers and (Visa & MasterCard) debit cards, while payment by credit cards and postal orders are not allowed. Customers (who are clients of IC Securities) will also be able to trade/sell their share by USSD on the phone app

Mobile Money: 11.6 million customers use it to do a variety of things including money transfers (they have 90,000 agents/merchants), buy airtime, bill payments, bulk payments, pay fees to schools on the platform, save (and invest), “TBill4All” (partnership with Ecobank Ghana enables buying of treasury bills), “Y’ello” save (partnerships with Fidelity Bank for savings), international remittance, send money to bank accounts, buy “mi-life” insurance and do ATM cash-outs at machines at 8 of the 17 banks that MTN partners with. “MoMo” has also used for payment in the Google store since December 2017.

Shareholding changes: Ahead of the IPO, MTN Group owns 97.65% and a company called Zent 2.35%; after the IPO it is envisioned that MTN Group will have 63%, Zent 1.91% and new investors 35%. The minimum target to be deemed a success is 10% i.e uptake of 0.35 billion GHS ($75 million) – and allocation to non-Ghanaians will be limited to 5% of the issues shares

Taxes: MTN Ghana pays about 3% of Ghana government tax revenue and supports 500,000 jobs through its ecosystem of suppliers. It paid 1.1 billion cedis ($225 million) in 2017 as income tax, communication fees, withholding, customs duties, PAYE and other taxes.

Threats: The document cites threats to MTN Ghana growth plans including; battery theft (from cell sites), fibre cuts (average 3 per day on their 5,000 kilometre nationwide fibre network), SImbox fraud, load shedding (electricity power shortages), OTT calls and competition from other Telco’s.

 Timelines: The IPO runs for nine weeks from 29 May to 31 July 2018. There will be regional sideshows for two weeks in June, and allotment and listing are planned for on 5 September 2018. If there is an oversubscription, refunds will be from August 8.

Transaction advisors: The sponsoring stockbroker is IC securities, and receiving agents are all stockbrokers and receiving banks are almost about 20 Ghanaian banks – such as Access, Ecobank, Barclays, UBA, FBN, GT Bank, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered, Stanbic, Zenith, FBN, GN, and Fidelity.

Valuation: They are offering 4.63 billion shares at GHS 0.75 per share (about $0.16 or Kenya 16.1 per share ) and MTN Ghana can employees get a 10% discount. The offer documents by MTN Ghana compared its implied value from the IPO of about $2.2 billion (GHS 10 billion) to other peer Telco’s including MTN Group (South Africa) $18.6 billion, Bharti Airtel (India) $26.2 billion), Etisalat (UAE) $40.5 billion), Safaricom (Kenya) $11.5 billion), Itissalat Al-Maghrib (Morocco) $14.3 billion, Sonatel (Senegal) $4.0 billion, and Vodacom Group (SA) $22.6 billion) .

Shares Portfolio May 2015

Comparing performance to last quarter and a year ago.

snoop

Compared to last quarter, the portfolio is down 3% while the NSE 20 share index is down 10% since February 2015.

 

The Stable
Bralirwa (Rwanda)  ↓
Centum (ICDCI)  ↓
Diamond Trust  ↓
Equity –
KCB  ↓
Kenya Airways  ↓
Kenya Oil  ↓
Mumias  ↓
NSE ↑
Safaricom ↑
Scangroup ↓
Stanbic (Uganda) ↓
Unga ↑

Changes
In: Equity Bank
Out: None
Increase: Kenya Airways, Kenol, Mumias
Decrease: None
Best performer: Safaricom (up 11% this quarter)
Worst performer: Kenya Airways (down 34%) , Mumias  (down -33%)

Looking Forward To:
– Bank profits & dividends from banks (KCB) and Safaricom.
– More M&A deals from Centum after their bond

Other Events:

– Safaricom’s super profits continued, and defied expectations of many, with profits going up 38% to $336 million. The company is crucial to the Kenya government in that will pay almost $600 million in taxes & licences fees this year, plus a Kshs 9 billion ($100 million) dividend that works about to about 10% of the country’s tax revenue!

–  A Kenya Airways full year loss expected to be announced this month amid other restructuring, debt, bailout, partnership (is the KLM shareholding good or bad?) discussions. There was a comment from a KQ executive who said that “our profit on each passenger can’t buy a good cup of coffee”.

– Just across the border, in Rwanda, was the IPO of  Crystal Telecom, in which 20% of MTN Rwanda was sold to the public and will be listed on the Rwanda stock exchange. The IPO which closed last week, cost a minimum investment of $150, and was open to all East African citizens.