Chinwendu Obienyi
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), on Thursday, said all is set for today’s dual/cross-border listing of the entire issued 3,758,151,504 ordinary shares of Airtel Africa Plc on its main board.
By that arrangement, shares of Airtel Africa with operations in 14 African countries would be listed at N363 per share, adding a total of N1.364 trillion to the market capitalisation of the Exchange.
The secondary listing of Airtel on the NSE today is coming after its London Stock Exchange (LSE) primarily listing on Wednesday, which followed a book building process that saw investors purchase 637,178,979 ordinary shares of 50 Cents at 80 Pence per share. A secondary listing is when securities already listed on a primary exchange are subsequently listed on other securities exchanges, with the Issuer not subjected to the full requirements applicable to listing on the other securities exchange(s) at which it seeks a secondary listing.
A bookbuilding is defined as “a price discovery mechanism that is used in the capital market to price securities for public sale for the first time. When shares are being offered for sale in an IPO, it can either be done at a fixed price or at a price range. If the company is not sure about the exact price at which to market its shares, it can decide a price range instead of an exact figure. The method of offering shares by providing a price range is called a bookbuilding method. The price range sets a floor price and the highest price in which investors can bid.”
For Airtel Africa, a total of $750million was raised from the exercise, with Nigerian participants contributing just under N15billion from 39,227,968 shares purchased at N363 each.
Addressing newsmen on the NSE ahead of the listing, Godsent Iwenekhai, Head, Listing Regulations on the bourse said the application was considered and approved based the rules for cross border listing and the domestic bourse’s rule.
“Airtel Africa met all (pre-listing) requirements of the exchange, except for the (minimum of) 300 shareholders for which the NSE granted a waiver to list (even) with its 139 shareholders. The rule is designed to attract listings to the market.”
The waiver, notwithstanding, he said the company will be market as “Below Listing Standard (BLS),” confident that post listing on the NSE and entry of retail Nigerian investors, the number of shareholders would grow.