MTN Ghana has commenced moves to offload some of its shares, possibly 35percent, to, mostly, local investors on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
Confirming the news to the B&FT, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Adu Anane Antwi, said the biggest telecoms operator in the country has approached the capital market’s regulator to begin the process of listing.
“MTN is making arrangements to float on the market. They are still working on their prospectus but we have no timelines yet,” he said.
The company’s CEO, Ebenezer Asante, would, however, not confirm the listing directly, telling the B&FT in an interview that: “I can only speak when the regulator has given the go-ahead.”
Sources indicate that MTN is hoping to raise US$500million in order to offload 35% of the business to locals, which is a condition under which it secured the 4G licence in December last year. The company spent US$67.5million to acquire the licence which is valid for the next 15 years.
Indeed, earlier this year, Mr. Asante disclosed that the company was exploring various options, including listing on the bourse, to localise about 35% of the business, in fulfilment of the condition.
The listing is expected next year, and will deepen much-needed diversity on the local bourse, which market regulators and operators have been seeking, to truly reflect the economy of the country.
Many analysts have argued that the current nature of the capital market –which has insurance companies, banks, non bank financial institutions, fast moving consumer goods, manufacturers and mining companies, oil companies– is still a long way from truly reflecting the full scope of the economy.
As a dominant player, MTN, with its listing, will be serving as a pacesetter for a highly competitive industry, and might urge its peers to also list, which will provide much needed liquidity to boost activity on the bourse.
In 2015, MTN posted a strong revenue performance by raking in about GH¢2.32billion in a year many businesses in the country suffered the brunt of a challenging macroeconomic environment.
This means that MTN last year generated about GH¢6.34million in revenue every single day and with the launch of its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) 4G service in June this year, it is looking at increasing its revenue performance.
The 2015 revenue performance represents a 15.9 percent increase over the 2014 figure of GH¢1.99billion and was supported strongly by its data services, which contributed 30.6 percent to the company’s total revenue.
Out of the revenue it made in 2015, MTN paid GH¢675.6million as taxes to government, which is GH¢70.6million more than it did in 2014, and represents about 70percent of the total tax collected by the Ghana Revenue Authority from the telecom sector.
MTN, currently the biggest mobile network operator in Ghana, controls 46 percent of the mobile phone subscriber market -- with total voice subscriptions totalling a little above 17million as at the end of June, 2016.
In 2015, the company increased its voice subscriptions by 17.3 percent, whilst its data subscriptions also stood at 8.634million which is 47.8 percent of the entire data market share.
Source: B&FT online
