SEC tasks MTN Group on filing of IPO application for NSE listing

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has tasked MTN Group on official filing of Initial Public Offering (IPO), which gathered media momentum in the last couple of months.

Speaking at the commission’s second post Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting in Lagos, last week, Ms Mary Uduk, SEC acting Director-General, said that it had not received any official application from MTN despite media hype on the offer.

“Let MTN file first and the day they tell you they have filed, watch us and count.

“Not what you see on the pages of newspapers. Let MTN file their application today and then watch us.

“If you like come and stay in the commission to monitor. I will make an exception. I will open the commission to the press.

“Do you understand? That is the seriousness, we deal with everything that surrounds MTN.

“Let them just file, please tell them to file and leave the heat at the side of the commission because as we speak and as far as we know, MTN is still a private company until they convert to a public company and then file application with us,” Uduk said.

Uduk said that the commission was ready for MTN’s application and would ensure speedy process once the application was filed.

It has been suggested that capital market operators had doubted the possibility of MTN IPO and subsequent listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) this year.

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They said that the IPO may not be visible this 2018 by the way and manner MTN was handling the issue.

Malam Garba Kurfi, the Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Ltd, said that MTN was dragging the issue because of the way and manner things were handled in the country.

“It will not be a surprise if they come with another excuse to shift the offer to next year as there is nothing on the ground to confirm their seriousness even though they have selected parties to the offer,” Kurfi said.

However, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Danbatta, said recently that MTN must list on the NSE on or before May 2019.

Danbatta was quoted to have said in Abuja that the company must list on or before May 2019 as contained in the agreement over the 2015 fine settlement between the regulator and the telecoms company.

MTN Group had in May told some media organisations that it was perfecting the details of its proposed Nigeria IPO.

The MTN representative said detailed process and work stream on the IPO were presently underway and would be announced at the appropriate time.

Speaking on the IPO process, the official said MTN had not made known the offer value contrary to the 500 million dollars being speculated in the media.

“To clarify some matters on the IPO process, no amount/value has been given by MTN Group or MTN Nigeria regarding the IPO and there was never a statement on a proposed 500 million dollars IPO.