Vodacom's Tanzania Unit to Raise $213 Million in Debut IPO
(Bloomberg) -- Vodacom Group Ltd.'s Tanzanian unit plans to raise 476 billion shillings ($213 million) in a share sale, the first of a series of initial public offerings by telecommunications companies on the domestic stock exchange this year.
The company plans to sell 560 million shares at 850 shillings each after it received approval Tuesday from the Capital Markets and Securities Authority, Godfrey Gabriel, head of corporate and market research at lead manager Orbit Securities Ltd., said by phone from the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. Charles Shirima, a spokesman for the regulator, confirmed approval had been granted.
Tanzania in June enacted a law requiring phone companies to sell at least a 25 percent stake of their units in the country on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange to boost local ownership. The industry has more than quadrupled its subscriber base over the past decade to more than 40 million users, according to the industry regulator.
Vodacom is the country's largest operator with 31 percent market share, followed by Millicom International Cellular SA's Tigo, Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s domestic subsidiary and Halotel, a unit of Vietnam's Viettel Group. Companies registered in Tanzania after July 2016 are exempt from the listing requirement for at least two years.
Market Boost
The shares being offered equate to 25 percent of Vodacom Tanzania, the company said in an e-mailed response to questions. That values the Vodacom Tanzania at 1.9 trillion shillings ($852 million). Safaricom Ltd., East Africa's biggest mobile operator based in neighboring Kenya that's also part-owned by Vodacom parent Vodafone Plc, has a market capitalization of 713 billion Kenyan shillings ($6.93 billion).
Vodacom's offering will boost the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange's market capitalization by 2.4 percent to about 20.6 trillion shillings, according to data on the bourse's website. The share sale is scheduled for March and will be restricted to Tanzanian investors, Emmanuel Nyalalai, trading and data manager at the bourse, said in a phone interview.
“The immediate impact for DSE will be the obvious increase of the market capitalization,” Nyalalai said. “These IPOs have also become a factor in increasing business at the DSE at all levels: trading members, a jump in investors and more liquidity in the exchange.”
--With assistance from Loni Prinsloo
To contact the reporter on this story: Omar Mohammed in Dar es Salaam at omohammed4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Karl Maier
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
-
'Never Seen This Level Of Negativity': Sandeep Tandon Says The Next Rally May Be Closer Than You Think
Veteran investor Sandeep Tandon says foreign selling is easing, large-caps are due a comeback and mid-caps are crowded, while he turns positive on gold, power and pharma this Diwali.
