Following its Third Annual General Meeting (AGM) in April 28, this year, MTN Nigeria resolved its dividend payment of N174.53billion which translates to N8.57 Kobo per every 2 Kobo ordinary share to be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the company’s Register of Members at the close of business on April 6, this year, bringing the total dividend for the year ended December 31, last year to N13.12, subject to withholding tax.
At the event, the leading technology company said the results of its first public offer on a digital platform.The initial 575 million share units offer was exceeded with an oversubscription rate of 139.47per cent.
To manage this surge in subscription, MTN Nigeria added 86.25million share units to the initial share units.
In all, 661.25 million MTN Nigeria shares were allotted and a total of 126,720 retail investors submitted valid applications and received full allotment. Other institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers, corporates, and foreign portfolio investors who participated in the bookbuild were allotted 72.09per cent of their applications. This includes Nigerian pension funds representing 6.5 million contributors. Nigerian investors across the country supported the offer through multiple channels such as Receiving Agents, Issuing Houses and PrimaryOffer, that is the digital application platform. More than 89 per cent of retail offer subscribers applied through the PrimaryOffer platform (via mobile and web).
In addition, 114,938 new Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) accounts were opened by first-time investors. It was estimated that 76 per cent of the successful subscribers to the public share offer via the digital platform are women while 85 per cent of these are below the age of 40.
Speaking on the opportunity that the public share offers to Nigerians, Chairman, MTN Nigeria, Ernest Ndukwe, said: “There was no better way for us to commemorate our 20th Anniversary than by giving more Nigerians the opportunity to participate in our future success, in line with our Ambition 2025 commitment to shared value. To do this, we launched an offer for the sale of 575 million shares held by the MTN Group in MTN Nigeria Communications Plc in November 2021. It also leveraged an innovative digital platform to maximise participation, while many of Nigeria’s institutional investors also participated in the bookbuild phase of the offer.”
The incentives for all investors include one free share for every 20 purchased, subject to a maximum of 250 free shares per investor. Also, an additional 4.28 million MTN Nigeria shares will be allotted to qualifying investors who hold the shares allotted to them for 12 months till 31 January 2023.
Whilst commenting on the Offer, CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, said: “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.”
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
