Airtel Uganda sells 4.3 billion shares in its IPO

Telecom giant Airtel Uganda has announced that it sold 4.36 billion shares out of the eight billion it floated about three months ago.

In a statement released on Monday, 06 November 2023, Airtel Uganda said it realised only Shs211.4b, representing a return of 26 percent, out of the Shs800b it had targeted to get.

Of the 4.36 billion shares, 10.55 percent was taken up by professional investors, while 0.34 percent went to retailers. 

Airtel noted that 54.45 percent of the offer was subscribed with at least 4,614 investors taking up shares.

National Social Savings Fund was the only institutional investor that bought into Airtel, having made an October 27 deadline buy of Shs199b for a 10.55 percent stake.

“Following the offer, professional investors will hold 10.55 percent of the total shares outstanding of Airtel, with retail investors holding 0.34 percent,” Airtel said.

In the statement, Airtel indicated that all successful applicants will have their SCD accounts credited with applied for and incentive shares on Tuesday, November 6, while unsuccessful applicants will be notified and their funds refunded within 14 days.

Airtel had in the days leading to the offer closure doubled incentive shares as it attempted to attract more investors to its IPO.

 The incentive shares heavily subsidized the offer price to about Shs47 for institutional investors from the initial Shs100, while it fell to Shs71 per share for retail investors.

While announcing the incentive share offer, Airtel had indicated that the move had been informed by the need to increase participation of Ugandans, which had also forced the telecom to extend the closure date from October 13 to October 27.

Airtel will be the 11th company to list on the USE after MTN and the second telecom to list under the National Broadband Policy, which makes it mandatory for all telecoms to sell at least 20 percent of their shares.