Airtel Africa IPO Expected to Price at Bottom End of Range

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s initial public offering of its Africa unit is expected to price at 80 pence a share, the bottom of its range of 80 pence to 100 pence, according to terms seen by Bloomberg.

The books, which close at 2 p.m. in London on Thursday, are oversubscribed on the full size of the deal, the documents show.

Bharti is seeking to raise $750 million on Friday through listings in London and Nigeria, to pay down debt that swelled during a years-long price war in India. Bharti, based in New Delhi, also faces a hefty bill to upgrade its domestic mobile network to fifth-generation services. The Indian telecom regulator expects carriers to spend $70 billion on 5G.

The Airtel Africa sale is expected to be among the largest IPOs announced in 2019 in London, where emerging markets companies are boosting volumes amid a lackluster year for domestic sales. Middle Eastern payments processor Network International Holdings Plc raised 1.1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) last month in the largest London IPO this year.

Airtel Africa is the continent’s second-largest by subscribers. It already raised $1.25 billion last year from investors including Temasek Holdings Pte and SoftBank Group Corp.

Source: Blooomberg Business News