Vodacom Tanzania has received regulatory approval to extend the deadline of its initial public offering (IPO), which will see 25% of its shares listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) on 16 May. The mobile market leader, which is majority owned by South Africa’s Vodacom Group (itself a subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone Group), is offering 560 million shares to the public at TZS850 (USD0.38) each, valuing the 25% stake at TZS476 billion. The offer was originally scheduled to close on 19 April 2017, ahead of the listing initially planned for 16 May, but Bloomberg cites Vodacom Tanzania’s Managing Director Ian Ferrao as saying that the offer will now expire on 11 May, with the final listing expected by 6 June. The executive added that the three-week extension will give retail and institutional investors more time to take part in the IPO.
Under the Finance Act of 2016, which amended the Electronic and Postal Communications Act of 2010, the government made it a legal requirement for the country’s telecoms operators to float 25% of their shares on the DSE, notes TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database.