Nigeria’s telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria, has announced the successful allotment of incentive shares to qualified shareholders, as promised in its December 2021 offer for sale which was completed on 31 January 2022. The company made this known through a statement approved by Uto Ukpanah, company secretary and released to the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX).
“As disclosed in the offer prospectus, the incentive became effective on January 31, 2023(the qualification date), being 12 months following the SEC’s clearance of the offer allotment,” MTN Nigeria stated, adding that the shareholders who qualified for the incentive shares are those who purchased and were allotted at least 20 ordinary shares in the offer, held some or all the shares allotted at the offer as at the qualification date, 31 January 2023 but subject to holding at least 20 ordinary share, and whose names appeared in the Register of Members at the qualification date.
It added that 120,359 investors representing 94.77 percent of those who participated in the offer qualified to receive the incentive shares totaling 3,977,418 ordinary shares of MTN Nigeria, implying that the total shares allotted were 665.23 million.
“The incentive shares have been credited to their Central Securities Clearing System(CSCS) accounts from the shares held by MTN International(Mauritius) Limited, in line with our ambition of creating shared value for our shareholders,” MTN added.
Meanwhile, MTN Nigeria has raised N125 billion through its series 4 and 5 commercial paper issuance, under its N150 billion Commercial Paper Issuance Programme.
According to MTN Nigeria, the offer was oversubscribed by 125 percent as its initial plan was to raise N100 billion.
The offer was raised under the 188-day and 267-day tenors. The 188-day offer has a yield of 11 percent while the 267-day offer has a yield of 12.50 percent. The CP issuance was completed on 1 March 2023.
In 2022, MTN Nigeria made N2.012 trillion as revenue in contrast to N1.65 trillion it made as revenue in 2021. Operating profit was N733.29 billion in 2022 as against N584.74 billion in 2021. Profit after tax(PAT) in 2022 stood at N358.87 billion, which was 20.2 percent higher than the PAT of N298.65 billion in 2021.
In addition to an interim dividend of N113.99 billion, representing N5.60 per share it paid to shareholders at half year 2022, MTN Nigeria has declared a N10 per share as the final dividend for 2022.
“A final dividend of N10 per 2 kobo ordinary share has been proposed by the board of directors of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc(bringing the total dividend for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 to N15.60 kobo), subject to appropriate deduction of withholding tax and will be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the register of members as at the close of business on 27 March 2023,” MTN announced in a note to investors.
At the end of trading on NGX yesterday, MTN Nigeria’s share price closed at N249.50 per share, representing a year-to-date price appreciation of 16.05 percent.
