Airtel Uganda has come under fire for excluding mobile money services from the Initial Public Offer as the telecom company seeks to list 8 billion on the stock market.
However, the prospectus available on the website states that the shares do not include Airtel Money which is the lucrative part of the of the company. This means that Airtel is only offering voice to the public.
Ugandans should remember that MTN-Uganda offered both mobile money and voice.
“By living our value of customer-centricity, the offer gives preference to Ugandan investors to own a share in the company and participate in its future growth. The offer and the listing will also enable the company to satisfy the provisions of the NTO licence and contribute to the expansion of the Uganda capital markets” reads the prospectus on Airtel website.
By excluding Airtel Money, the telecom seeks to retain the juicy part of the business as only voice is listed on the stock market and this means despite President Yoweri Museveni’s directive that all foreign owned firms list on the stock market in order to enable Ugandans own shares and avoid capital flight out of the country, the exclusion of Airtel Money means that there will still be capital flight as the Airtel Money will still be controlled by foreigners.
Under article 16 of the NTO licence, the company is directed to comply with the sector policy, regulations sand guidelines requiring the listing of part of its shares on stock market and for this case, Uganda Security Exchange but to the contrary, Airtel has excluded its money business.
Government of Uganda is urging telecom operators to list a fifth of their shares on the USE to allow locals to benefit from the sector’s profits.
Last year, MTN Uganda floated 20% of its shares to Ugandans and East Africans from Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan. The 20% transited into over 4.4 million shares.
According to Manoj Murali, Managing Director of Airtel Uganda, each share will go for Shs100 and the minimum application must be at least 2,500 shares.
Airtel entered the Uganda Market on June 8 2010 when Bharti Airtel acquired 16 Zain Africa operations.
In 2013, Airtel fully acquired Warid Telecom Uganda in the first ever in-country acquisition in the telecommunications sector. With this, Airtel further consolidated its position as the second largest mobile operator in Uganda with a combined customer base of over 7.4 million and market share of over 39% cementing its position as the second mobile telephone network, behind market leader MTN Uganda.
In 2018, Airtel hit the 10 million customer mark. This milestone cemented Airtel’s position as the fastest growing telecom in Uganda.
Sources within the telecom told this website that earlier on, the telecom acquired a loan of Shs1.5 trillion from a financial institution to pay owners as dividends.