Two years after MTN Nigeria’s initial public offering (IPO) plan was extended due to ‘conditions that are not inconducive‘, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group, Rob Shuter disclosed that its local subsidiary will list on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) this year.
Shuter told CNBC at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that MTN Nigeria is now in good shape to conclude the listing and make its shares available for the public.
This comes a day after the Nigeria Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer, Oscar Onyema said the exchange is still in talks with MTN Nigeria to list on NSE. He maintained that the telecoms company intends to fulfill their commitment to the Federal Government and Nigeria.
To back up Onyema’s statement, Shuter said MTN Nigeria is ‘absolutely committed’ to listing on the stock exchange.
“I had a very good meeting with Oscar in the week, so we absolutely committed listing MTN Nigeria on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. We were very far advanced last year, but of course, as you can imagine, some of the difficulties we had that has slowed us down. But we actually intend to complete the listing in 2019, and i think we are in good shape to do that.
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
The process of offering shares in a private corporation to the public for the first time is called an initial public offering (IPO). Growing companies that need capital will frequently use IPOs to raise money, while more established firms may use an IPO to allow the owners to exit some or all their ownership by selling shares to the public.