Airtel Uganda has been given permission to delay its listing on the local stock market for twelve months. Under the terms of its licence, Airtel was required to go public by 15 December 2022 and offer 20% of its capital to Ugandan investors. In May this year, however, the firm asked the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) for a one-year extension, with it now revealing that the request was due to unfavourable market conditions.
Ecofin cites UCC spokesperson Rebecca Mukite as saying: ‘Although it’s a licensing requirement, you don’t want a company to go public when the market isn’t ready, or their shares will be undersubscribed.’
Rival operator MTN Uganda carried out an initial public offer (IPO) in November/December 2021, but only sold 2.9 billion of the 4.5 billion shares it had made available.