No Interest from MTN to List on NSE – SEC

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may have not received any document from MTN indicating an interest to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)

The is contrary to claims that the telco’s preparation has reached advanced stage, according to investigation by the Punch.

Responding to queries from Punch on MTN Nigeria’s communication with SEC as regards it well publicised listing on the Exchange, a source at the Commission said, “there is no such thing in a document here. In fact, they have not come to us.”

NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, chief executive officer, told newsmen mid-January this year that the Exchange would not comment on the planned listing of MTN as it (NSE) was not in the right position to speak for the telco.

Onyema said, “MTN has to tell its own story, and not us doing so for it.”

Reacting to the planned listing of the telecoms firm, an official of MTN, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that the company was still committed to its plan to list on the Exchange.

The official told our correspondent that “the listing process is on course.”

In November 2017, the MTN Group Limited said it was focused on laying the groundwork for an initial public offering of its Nigerian business and should complete the process in the next six months, meaning May 2018 latest.

Rob Shuter, chief executive officer, was quoted to have said, “We have a lot of advisers running around and getting everything ready,” in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

He added, “It’s a complicated process and there’s a lot of regulation that needs to be arranged. We are moving forward well with the project and anticipate concluding that in the next six months or so.”

MTN agreed to the IPO as part of the settlement of a $1bn fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission on it in 2015.

The firm, which is Africa’s biggest wireless operator by sales, incurred the penalty after missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers amid a security crackdown in the country. Since then, the CEO said he had been “pleased” with MTN’s operation in Nigeria, the biggest of the Johannesburg-based company’s 22 markets across Africa and the Middle East.

In January last year, the NSE said it was working “very closely” with MTN on the listing of its shares in the country’s bourse.

“The pressure on MTN has never been higher to list,” the NSE CEO told a business conference then, adding, “There’s a project team working with them.”

Onyema said he expected MTN’s listing to drive the IPO market, which has virtually slowed down in the past year.

MTN had appointed Stanbic IBTC Capital, Standard Bank of South Africa and Standard Advisory London, and Citigroup Global Markets, as joint transaction advisors and global coordinators, with Stanbic acting as the lead issuer.