Investors Urge MTN to Extend the End date of their 575 million Units Shares offering

Following Nigeria’s telecom giant, MTN, first public offering of  575 million units of ordinary shares, capital market stakeholders have urged the company to prolong the offer term, which ended on December 14, 2021. They claim it will bring more Nigerians into the investment net.  

The investors demand an extension of the offer, claiming that many of their members had yet to sign up for the exercise.

According to them, two weeks is far too short a time for such a huge investment, which was mostly made using the Public Offer app, the first of its kind in the Nigerian stock market’s history. 

While praising MTN Group for its plan to sell up to 575 million shares to institutional and retail investors, Eric Akinduro, Chairman of the Ibadan Zone Shareholders Association, pointed out that the offer time is too short. 

“The value investors have placed on MTN is very high because it is an international company and people have so much belief in them that they will deliver returns on investments. Yes, the pricing is high but we are not looking at that, rather we are looking at the satisfaction we will derive from it. From the look of things, it seems it will be oversubscribed but some of the people showing interest do not have a CSCS account and it is pertinent to have this account before one subscribe for it. And because of the limited time to go through these processes of opening an account is more of a hurdle to the prospective investors who want to partake before the offer closes”, Akinduro said.

According to him, “the duration of the offer is very short and with a lot of investors still agitating for it, we are urging the company of looking at ways of extending the duration as it will help Nigerian shareholders. There are complaints of issuing house not being here in Nigeria but at the end of the day, what we want to see as shareholders is the value that is placed on multinational companies and this is a big lesson to our indigenous companies. When they understand and know what they are doing, people will rally round you and support you in everything you are doing and so it is a good thing and I believe MTN will deliver”.

David Adonri, Managing Director of Highcap Securities, lauded the telecom company for the offering but appealed for an extension to allow more investors to buy freshly or more shares.

He said, “Existing and potential shareholders have made a strong case for extension of the closing date for the offer, they can quickly partake since the application is going on simultaneously on the digital and physical space.

“Even within one’s confines and within 10 minutes, one who is conversant with computer and a mobile phone can run the transaction.

“The growth of the company in recent times has risen a lot despite all the fines by the Federal Government and so, it is good that they are trying to reposition themselves as a Nigerian company”.

The National Coordinator, Progressive Shareholders Association, Okezie Boniface, explained that the extension will be a welcome development, “because the value investors have placed on MTN Nigeria is very high because it is an international company and people have so much belief in them that they  will deliver returns on investments”.

Will MTN call for an extension?

In an interview, Funso Aina, the spokesperson of MTN, said, “Extending the offer lies in the hands of SEC and MTN has not done anything about that now. When and If we do that I will let you know”.

MTN Nigeria had previously announced an offer to sell 575 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to the general public for N169 each. As a result, the application period for the offer began on December 1, 2021, and will end on December 14, 2021, at 5.00 p.m. Despite calls from a variety of sources, it is unclear at this time whether the offer period will be extended.

READ MORE: Everything You Should Know about MTN Public Offering