MTN Pushes Ahead With Listing in Nigeria

MTN Group Limited on Tuesday said plans for an initial public offering of its Nigerian business this year were well advanced.

The Chief Executive Officer, MTN, Rob Shuter, said the company would provide exact terms in the next few months.

He spoke in Lagos after MTN signed an agreement with Ecobank to form a partnership on mobile banking across Africa.

“We are well advanced with the Nigerian listing. If market conditions are appropriate we should conclude it this year,” Reuters quoted as saying.

MTN said in November that it was focused on laying the groundwork for the IPO and should complete the process in the next six months.

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.

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.