MTN Nigeria made no less than N111.75 billion from its recent public share offer to members of the public.
In a statement cited by BizWatch Nigeria the telco giant said while it realised billions of naira from the programme, it also boasts of direct or indirect shareholders of 6.6 million Nigerians.
“We are pleased that this offer has given so many Nigerians the opportunity to become owners of MTN Nigeria.
“With over 6.6 million Nigerians directly or indirectly becoming shareholders in MTN Nigeria, the objective of broadening the shareholder base and creating shared value has been achieved,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MTN Group, Ralph Mupita, was quoted as saying in the statement titled ‘Results of the series 1 offer for sale of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc ordinary shares, first public offer via digital platform in Nigeria’.
Even though MTN had planned to allot 575 million shares to the public, it ended up allotting 661.25 million shares, which represents a 139.47% oversubscription.
Expressing satisfaction with the public offer, CEO, MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola stated: “We are delighted to welcome so many new shareholders to the MTN family, up 11.6 times from the number before the offer.
“It has been inspiring to see so many Nigerians, many of whom are young, acquire shares for the first time, and use a digital platform to do so. This is the beginning of a journey to broaden our shareholding and there will be more opportunities to participate.”
What this means
BizWatch Nigeria understands that with the public offer results, the investing public had demonstrated their confidence in the telco, and its future, such that they oversubscribed it in spite of the fact that the programme was only opened during the yuletide period.
It would be recalled that following a two weeks roadshow, the public offer was opened to members of the public on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, and ended on Thursday, December 14.
