MTN International Reaps N1 Trillion From Nigerian Investors In 5 Days

MTN International, the South African owned telecommunications giant has reaped N1.097 trillion from the Nigerian Stock Exchange since the company’s shares were listed

The gains to the South African owners is more than three times the N330 billion sanction slammed on the company for the infraction of selling unregistered sim cards by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC in 2015.

The NCC had in 2015 slammed a $5 billion fine on MTN for failing to disconnect subscribers with unregistered sim cards. That fine was scaled down to $1.4 billion dollars before the company through still through unclear circumstances settled for a N330 billion fine.

Part of the settlement was for the listing of the shares of the Nigerian affiliate on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It was a demand meant to spread the ownership of the largely South African company to Nigerians.

MTN Nigeria is estimated to be owned by South Africans to the tune of about 76%.

The company upon still unclear negotiations with the Nigerian Stock Exchange had introduced 20,000,000,000 billion shares on the floor of the exchange last Thursday.

However, dealers and investors have since then complained about scarcity of the shares which have been mostly obtained by crossing.

The scarcity of the shares, investors and market experts say, has helped skyrocket the price of the shares taking it to N144.58 on Thursday after only five days of trading.  

That is N54.8 above the introductory price of N90 a share, a spectacular rise in the opinion of many watchers. Indeed, by Tuesday the apex market regulatory body, Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC was reported by Thisday to have launched a probe into the secret introduction of the MTN shares into the market.

The belief among many market observers is that the company wants to drive up the price for a possible Initial Public Offering, IPO to a height to bring maximum benefit to the mostly South African owners of the company whenever the IPO is launched.

Whatever, after five days of trading, MTN International had more than sufficiently recouped the N330 billion paid as fine to the Nigerian authorities two years ago.

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