MTN Uganda has attained a public float of 20 per cent at the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) and the company is now fully compliant with the minimum public float requirement set out in rule 32 (7) of the USE rules, 2021.
In 2021, MTN listed 20 per cent of its shares on the USE with a 12.97 per cent public float from the Initial Public Offering (IPO) and the telecom company provided an undertaking to the USE that the remaining 7.03 per cent would be completed by December 5, 2024.
This comes after the company’s completion of its secondary market offer for the purchase of shares which ran from May 27, 2024, to June 10, 2024. During the announcement of results from this secondary market offer for the purchase of shares at the MTN headquarters in Kampala, USE chief executive officer Paul Bwiso revealed that they gave approval and the company was voluntarily suspended for two weeks from USE so as to give Ugandans an opportunity to participate, look at the fundamentals of the company, the incentives shares that were provided and the dividends that were part of this offering from which they saw a lot of positive results in terms of participation.
“MTN’s market capitalisation is Shs 3.8 trillion out of the total local market capitalisation of Shs 11.8 trillion. That gives MTN a 32.3 per cent contribution to the local market capitalisation and this growth has been signified in the trading turnover we have seen at the exchange from IPO,” he said.
Grace Semakula from SBG Securities, the lead sponsoring broker on behalf of MTN Uganda noted that in total, 157,4807,373 shares were offered by MTN to the market and the preliminary results indicate a subscription rate of 230 per cent making it the strongest subscription they have received from issuance in the local market. This performance translates into an over-subscription of 130 per cent.
“We have received several applications from both existing and new investors and the company’s shareholder base has grown to over 20,000. With a strong retail participation in this offer, we have seen an average retail participation of Shs 13.4 million invested per average retail applicant,” said Semakula.
MTN Uganda chairman Charles Mbire confirmed the success of the recently concluded secondary market offer which he says in addition to being oversubscribed, has resulted in approximately 19,600 Ugandan investors owning a stake in the company.
“We are proud to have helped facilitate the broadest possible shareholder base in Uganda, with regional participation and in so doing, further developing the equity capital markets in this country.”
Meanwhile, MTN Uganda CEO Sylvia Mulinge revealed that the company’s old investors on the register as per June 12, 2024 and the new investors who participated in the secondary offer are eligible for the next dividend payment worth Shs 143 billion translating to Shs 6.4 per share which will be paid by June 25, 2024. This will bring the total dividend the company has paid to its shareholders since the IPO in December 2021 to Shs 864 billion.
