Lagos - South Africa's telecom group MTN
has met with Nigeria's Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) to discuss a possible initial public offering
and how it wanted to structure the share sale, the head of
Nigeria's SEC told Reuters.
SEC director general, Mounir Gwarzo, said MTN had discussed
the possibility of issuing various classes of shares to targeted
investor groups. He said the telecom firm was looking at three
different classes, which would be new in Nigeria.
Gwarzo said the commission was willing to support the share
sale as long as it was within local laws and advised the telecom
firm to ensure retail investors were protected.
MTN is the largest mobile phone operator in Nigeria with 57
million subscribers, and the country accounts for about a third
of its revenue.
Africa's biggest mobile phone operator MTN Group has said it
aims to listing its Nigerian unit during 2017, subject to market
conditions, part of an agreement with the Nigerian government.
In June the telecom firm said it would list its local unit
on the Nigerian Stock Exchange after agreeing to pay a reduced
fine of $1.7 billion in a settlement with the Nigerian
government over unregistered SIM cards.
Gwarzo said the company was yet to submit a formal
application for the share sale, he told Reuters.
MTN Nigeria has appointed Stanbic IBTC Capital, Standard
Bank of South Africa and Standard Advisory London, and Citigroup
Global Markets, as joint transaction advisors and global
coordinators, with Stanbic acting as lead issuer.