Ahead of its planned listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), MTN Nigeria recently converted from a private company to a public company. It also appointed some new directors, including former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
To this end, SEC said in a statement yesterday said it had received an application from MTN.
“The SEC can confirm that we are in receipt of an application from MTN requesting for registration of their existing securities.
“They have applied for listing by introduction which will enable the company to be listed and allow shareholders sell their shares on the floor of the exchange.
“Their application is presently receiving attention,” the capital market regulator said.
With the application, the coast is becoming clearer for the listing of MTN on the Nigerian bourse.
The Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Ferdi Moolman had said but for the disagreement the company had with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last year, it would have gone ahead with its listing plan.
According to him, they had done a lot of work on the listing and their target was to list in 2018.
He said: “We are a private company at the moment and we need to change to a public company before we can list. We need to send our directors for training to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nigerian Stock Exchange requirements to be able to list and a lot of work went on at the backend on the listing. Then, the CBN issue happened. The truth be told, if we had listed while the CBN issue was on, we would have been negligent. That is because we would have gone to offer our shares to the public when we had an issue at hand with the CBN that was substantial. If I remind you, they (CBN) were talking about $8 billion.
“So, I can’t go and list and offer my shares to the public if I have this thing hanging over my neck. We thank God we were able to resolve this on 24th of December. So, we are working towards the listing and we plan to do the listing before the end of first half 2019 or probably before the end of quarter three.”
