Airtel Africa says it is looking to raise $1 billion through an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, offering 25 per cent of its shares.
The telco said it is considering a stock market flotation in London to reduce existing debt.
“In furtherance to our previous intimations in this regard, we wish to inform you that Airtel Africa, a subsidiary of the company, has announced its potential intention to undertake an initial public offering for listing its equity shares on London Stock Exchange,” the company said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
In 2018, the company raised $1.25 billion from six global investors including SoftBank Group Corp, Warburg Pincus LLC and Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd.
It raised another $200 million from Qatar Investment Authority in March.
These helped reduce the company’s debt to $4 billion in March from $7.7 billion in 2018.
“The 14 countries where we operate offer strong GDP growth potential and have young and fast-growing populations, low customer and data penetration and inadequate banking infrastructure,” Raghunath Mandava, Airtel’s CEO, said in a statement.
“These fast-growing markets provide us a great opportunity to grow both our telecom and payments businesses.”
BofA Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan and Citigroup have been appointed as joint global coordinators and joint book-runners. Absa Group, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC and The Standard Bank of South Africa will also act as joint book-runners if the offer proceeds.
