MTN Nigeria yet to file IPO application, Securities Exchange Commission insists

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said that neither MTN Nigeria Limited nor any of its advisers or representatives has filed any application with the SEC regarding an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The commission, in a circular issued in Abuja at the weekend signed by its management, said its attention had been drawn to a publication on pages 1 and 38 of Business Day newspaper of Thursday, July 5, 2018 and other media outlets wherein it was reported that “after six weeks delay by SEC, the MTN IPO was set to go.”

According to SEC: “The commission wishes to categorically state that the information contained in the said publication is false, misleading and without merit.

“Additionally, the commission would like to state that MTN Nigeria Limited to the best of the commission’s knowledge is a private company limited by shares.

“As of the date of this circular, neither MTN Nigeria Limited nor any of its advisers or representatives has filed any application with the SEC regarding the said IPO.

“Given that there is no application from MTN before the commission, there could not have been a request by MTN or any of its representatives or advisers requiring any form of regulatory review.”

In another development, Dangote Cement Plc may consider its long-planned listing of shares in London Stock Exchange (LSE) after Nigeria’s elections early next year.

The consideration for the London listing is coming nine years after the cement manufacturing firm listed 15.5 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N135.00 per by way of introduction on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The figure represents about 15 per cent of cement company’s shares.

Group Executive Director of Dangote Industries Limited, Edwin Devakumar, said: “According to Bloomberg report, a number of banks have approached the company to arrange the initial public offering, though none has been mandated and there’s been no decision about how much to raise.

“We are working on it and we’ll look at it in 2019. We have grown to this extent mostly via Greenfield investments.

To grow much more, we’d probably have to do it via acquisitions.”