Accra, Ghana, August 30, 2018//-MTN Ghana today announced that it raised an amount of GHC 1.14 billion from the Ghana Stock Exchange through an initial public offering (IPO).
The amount represents 3.3 times the minimum amount required for success.
“In total, there were 128,152 applicants for shares of which 127,826 were Ghanaians and contributed GHC 443,631,446.25. With this, MTN Ghana will have the largest number of Ghanaian shareholders of all the companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange”, according to the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh.
He noted that this offer enables many Ghanaians from all walks of life to own a share in one of the country’s largest, most viable and well respected companies.
Mr Adadevoh told journalists at press briefing: “By GHC1,146,589,464.75 from 128,152 applicants the offer makes history as the largest primary share offer in the history of the Ghana Stock Exchange”.
Mr Adadevoh said: “Today, I am very happy to announce the successful completion of MTN’s Initial Public Offer and to share exciting some exciting details with you”.
Huge Ghanaian participation
MTN Ghana is satisfied that most of applicants were local Ghanaians. This increases the capitalization and activity within the equity market, he said.
“As we have indicated already, the listing is the biggest in the country and, in Ghana Cedi terms, is almost double the size of all IPO’s put together in the history of the Ghana Stock Exchange”.
The telecoms company’s IPO attracted foreign investors which is something that is typical with the Ghana Stock exchange. The foreign participation is indicative of the attractiveness of the Ghana economy, the CEO stressed.
The Mobile money factor
In all, 108,434 applicants subscribed through the MTN Mobile Money portal representing 84.6% of the number of applicants.
“This contributed largely to the success of the IPO. As you already know, this is the first time that Mobile Money has been used to buy shares in an IPO (and subsequently trade them) anywhere in Africa OR the world over”, Mr Adadevoh stated.
He emphasised that the fact that 84.6% of applicants chose to use Mobile Money channel demonstrated another use case for Mobile Money and would accelerate financial inclusion in the capital markets of Ghana, for many people in this country who would not ordinarily have access to the capital markets.
Low entry price point
Mr Adadevoh explained to the journalists their Low entry price point and low minimum number of shares made it affordable for many Ghanaians and “we happy to see this active Ghanaian participation”.
“We also saw a lot of participation because of the approach we used – which is the use of multiple channels – media, face to face, digital etc.
Massive IPO publicity pays off
The management and staff of the company embarked on regional launches, market storms, engagements with stakeholder groups during the IPO period.
They also “had lots of media interactions across the country. It was not an easy road, the MTN staff and our partners did a wonderful job and it has paid off”.
Share allotment date
The company used the opportunity to announce that all successful applicants would be allotted all the shares they applied for. Applicants with Central Securities Depository (CSD) accounts will have their CSD accounts credited with their allotment by 04 September, 2018 by 5:00pm.
Furthermore, IC Securities will create CSD accounts for successful applicants who did not provide details of their CSD accounts as part of their application, and their respective allotments will be credited to the respective CSD account created for them.
Mr Adadevoh noted that a number of applicants who applied for shares through Mobile Money do not have all relevant “KYC” details in their system.
“We have sent notifications for them to update their identification documentation (IDs) and media announcements are being them to remind them.
Applicants who have received such notifications should visit any MTN Ghana Service Centre with IDs as a matter of urgency, to update their IDs in order to be able to trade their shares from the first day of trading”.
Per the Offer prospectus, an appropriate ID is a valid national passport; a driver’s licence; a national ID; a national health insurance ID or a voter’s ID.
Until applicants have updated their information and ID cards, their shares will be held in a nominee account at the CSD.
As soon as practicable after the applicants have updated their IDs, their shares will be transferred from the nominee account to their account, the company said.
First trading day
The first day of trading of the MTN Ghana shares is expected to be 05 September 2018. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the minimum threshold which was required to be raised for the Offer to be declared successful.
The minimum success threshold was 10% of the offer which is GHS 347,804,590.
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