MTN urges public to open share accounts
An MTN outlet in Uganda. The company has floated more than 4.4 billion shares on the stock market. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- The telecom company says its mobile money customers are able to open a Securities Central Depository account under their preferred licensed broker and apply for the shares online.
Telecommunication company MTN has advised the public to open Securities Central Depository (SCD) accounts at Uganda Securities Exchange to participate in buying of its shares that have been floated in the market at Shs200 per share.
Any Ugandan who opens an SCD account, which is free, and has Shs100,000 can participate in the buying of the MTN shares at the Initial Public Offer (IPO) stage because the minimum number of shares is 500, and it upgrades Ugandans from being a company subscriber to a shareholder.
The SCD trading system was launched on February 18 2010, and all investors in the stock market are required to open an SCD account.
MTN floated about 4.4 billion ordinary shares. This is the largest Initial Public Offer (IPO) to be floated in Uganda’s stock market after Stanbic Bank Uganda IPO, which had about 1 billion shares at Shs70 per share in 2006.
Speaking during the launch of MTN IPO at Kampala Serena Hotel yesterday, the company’s chief executive officer, Mr Wim Vanhelleputte, said it is MTN International (Mauritius), which is listing the 20 percent shares of its shares on Uganda Securities Exchange.
MTN International (Mauritius) Ltd is part of the management of companies and enterprises industry, and is seeking to raise Shs895. 5 billion from the IPO.
“With the opening of the IPO, we are one step closer to our goal of broad ownership of our business across the Ugandan population,” he said.
“Our m-IPO initiative is the country’s first paper-free IPO platform aimed at retail investors, in partnership with the USE, and will help position Uganda at the forefront of digitising the capital markets for Africa,” Mr Vanhelleputte added. The SCD, which is a subsidiary of Uganda Securities Exchange, partnered with MTN Mobile Money Uganda Limited (“MTN Momo”) to enable SCD account opening, using the mobile money platform, starting September 15 .
The telecom company said its mobile money customers with valid Ugandan national identification cards are able to open an SCD account under their preferred licensed broker on their mobile phone and apply for the shares online.
The other way of buying shares in the stock market is “USE Easy Portal”, the online platform administered by Uganda Securities Exchange.
It allows applicants to apply for offer shares, open SCD accounts and view the account statements.
MTN Uganda started operating in 1998. In the first half of this year, it had 14.9 million subscribers, 8.6 million mobile money users and 4.7 million active data users.
Stanbic Bank Uganda, a subsidiary of Standard Bank Group South Africa, is the transaction adviser of MTN shares listing in Uganda.
The bank’s chief executive officer, Ms Anne Juuko, said the announcement on the allotment of shares to each person who applied and paid for it will be on December 6, and the MTN shares will be listed on USE on December 12.
“As it has been said, MTN shares allocation is based on Uganda first. Ugandan individual investors will be allocated first, Ugandan professional investors second, then the East African individuals, East African professional investors and foreign investors last,” she said.
Ms Juuko added: “I want to encourage Ugandans to apply for the MTN shares early, the earlier you do the better. It is a good order.”
