MTN Nigeria has established a management task team to guide the company towards a listing in the West African country, with plans to list sometime next year.
"MTN Nigeria is pleased to announce its board of directors has resolved to proceed with preparations for a listing of MTN Nigeria on the NSE [Nigerian Stock Exchange] as soon as commercially and legally possible," the group said in a statement today.
"At present, MTN Nigeria is targeting that the listing takes place during 2017, subject to suitable market conditions."
As part of last month's 330 billion naira fine settlement arrangement with the Federal Government of Nigeria, the telecoms giant promised to make a secondary listing on the NSE as soon as it was commercially and legally possible. MTN's primary listing is in SA, on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
The original N1.04 trillion fine was slapped on MTN by the Nigerian Communication Commission last October for failing to meet a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards in Nigeria. The fine was later reduced by 25% to N780 billion.
In June, the South African-headquartered telecoms operator finally reached a settlement with Nigerian authorities after months of negotiations over the pending penalty. When the fine settlement was reached, N330 billion was worth around $1.671 billion (R25 billion) but today it is closer to $1 billion (R14.9 billion) due to currency movements.
MTN Nigeria today announced it has appointed Stanbic IBTC Capital ? together with its affiliates, the Standard Bank of South Africa and Standard Advisory London ? and Citigroup Global Markets as its joint transaction advisors and joint global coordinators, with Stanbic acting as lead issuing house.
"A full syndicate, including Nigerian receiving agents, Nigerian receiving banks and other advisers, would be appointed in due course, as appropriate," it says.
MTN says the proposed listing would be subject to suitable market circumstances and conditions, and the appropriate approvals from relevant regulators and other stakeholders. It also emphasised that today's statement "does not constitute an announcement of an intention to float MTN Nigeria" and it would make further announcements "at appropriate intervals on progress in this regard".
Last month, MTN paid the first of its six instalments for the penalty, a sum of 30 billion naira (or R1.6 billion at the time). Its next instalment of N30 billion is due on 31 March 2017, after which four instalments of N50 billion each will be paid on specified dates, with the final payment due in May 2019.
As of 30 April 2016, MTN had 230.3 million subscribers across its 22 operations in Africa and the Middle East. The telco has around 57 million subscribers in Nigeria and 30.1 million in SA.
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