Telecoms giant MTN Nigeria has announced the closure of its Series 1 offer for sales of shares to the public, alloting 661.3 million shares to investors in a transaction that saw subscription exceed offer by 139.5 per cent.

The company made 575 million shares available and received a total application for 802 million units. It decided to allocate 86.25 million units more in addition to what it originally placed on offer.

MTNN made the disclosure in a statement on the NGX website on Tuesday, signed by its company secretary, Uto Ukpanah.

It announced the public offer on November 26, 2021, which drew applications from 126,720 retail investors who, according to the telco heavyweight, got full allotment.

It said institutional investors that participated in the book build preceding the offer were allotted 72.09 per cent of their requests, including Nigerian pension fund managers, which represent approximately 6.5 million Nigerian contributors to the book build.

“Following the successful completion of the offer, MTN Group’s shareholding in MTN Nigeria reduced by 3.25 percentage points, from 78.83 per cent to 75.58 per cent,” according to the statement.

Commenting on the development, chief executive officer of MTN, Ralph Mupita, said: “We are pleased that this Offer has given so many Nigerians the opportunity to become owners of MTN Nigeria.”

“With over 6.6 million Nigerians directly or indirectly becoming shareholders in MTN Nigeria, the objective of broadening the shareholder base, and creating shared value has been achieved.”

PT