Nigeria’s securities regulator has approved the listing application filed by South African telecoms firm for its $5-billion Nigerian unit, reported Reuters.
MTN Nigeria registered more than 20 billion shares before the planned listing in the West African country, the telecommunications operator’s biggest market with 58 million users in 2018 and accounting for a third of the group’s annual core profit.
“MTN sought to come to the market by way of an introduction and they wrote to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) last week requesting for approval to register its existing shares,” the regulator said in a statement on Wednesday. “That approval has now been granted.”
As per latest reports, MTN Group’s Nigerian unit may list shares in Lagos next week, according to two people familiar with the matter. The listing comes almost three years after the telecoms firm agreed to the move as part of a deal with local regulators.
MTN is expected to process with the placing on 16 May, said the people, who asked not to be named as the matter is private. The sources said that the listing step could get delayed as some steps required by the Nigerian Stock Exchange still have to be completed.
“We don’t have a specific date, we are looking at some time before the end of this quarter,” said Tobechukwu Okigbo, MTN Nigeria’s head of corporate relations.
In related news, a Lagos court on Tuesday ruled that MTN could challenge Nigeria’s attorney general on the federation’s (AGF’s) claim of $2 billion (R29bn) in unpaid duties and taxes between 2007 and 2017.
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke rejected the AGF’s notice of preliminary objection to MTN Nigeria’s lawsuit challenging its authority to deal with issues around tax and customs duties. The court will now hear whether the AGF has the jurisdiction to make the decade-long tax claim next month.
