MTN to own R26.4 billion in tower company after New York Stock Exchange listing

Independent telecommunications company IHS Towers has announced its initial public offering (IPO) will be priced at $21.00 per share.

South African mobile network operator MTN currently has a 29% stake in the company, which it estimated to be worth R30.5 billion in June 2021.

IHS Towers is offering 18,000,000 shares to the public on the New York stock exchange between Thursday, 14 October 2021, and Monday, 18 October 2021.

The underwriters of the offering will have a 30-day option to purchase an additional 2,700,000 shares from IHS Towers at the IPO price, less the underwriting discount.

MTN said it would retain 85,176,719 ordinary shares from IHS Towers following the IPO, worth about $1,788,711,099 based on the $21 share value — or R26.4 billion.

The ordinary shares will begin trading under the ticker symbol “IHS”. They will be available through a prospectus that investors can access via the joint lead book-running managers for the offering.

These are as follows:

• Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC — Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, via telephone: 1-866-471-2526, or via email: prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com;
• J.P. Morgan Securities LLC — c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by telephone at: 1-866-803-9204, or by email at: prospectus-eg_fi@jpmchase.com; or
• Citigroup Global Markets Inc. — c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by telephone at: 1-800-831-9146.

Reports from earlier this year claimed that MTN was looking to sell and lease back some of its South African mobile network towers and had appointed Citigroup and Standard Bank to advise on the sale.

The company reportedly wanted to raise between R5 billion and R10 billion from the deal.

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