“How Villagers Can Buy” & Other Short Takes From MTN’s Offer Of 575m Share To Nigerians

The offer of 575million MTN Nigerian Share to retail investors – everyday Nigerians – is live.

The offer which is the first part of a three-stage move is on for two weeks (December 1, 2021, to December 14, 2021)

A media announcement- with journalists and a sprinkle of stakeholders present – was held yesterday, November 30, 2021, in Abuja.

Here are some of the short takes from the event

…..Foreward

Two people unknowingly provided “Forewards” with statements made at the tail end of the event. They are Karl Olutokun Toriola and Bolaji Balogun.

Here are their thoughts.

“If you’ve never ever bought a share in Nigeria and you are going to buy one share – this is the one. This is by a significant way Nigeria’s best run business. It is one of Nigeria’s biggest businesses by revenue generated.
It is Nigeria’s strongest business by profitability.

It is the Nigerian business that has the strongest dividend payout culture and payout ratio

This is a business which typically pays out a minimum of two dividends a year, so if this is the first time that you are thinking about buying shares, I will encourage you like I would do, I am a man of many children. I have five children and I have other children. And not only would I buy some for myself but I would buy for all those children. And I would buy for other people, my driver, my security man, every Nigerian should own a share of this company.” Bolaji Balogun, Chief Executive Officer at Chapel Hill Denham.

….
“I am feeling left out, and I am a man of only one child. Like we say in my village – a weak man. But look, I have the privilege of leading this organization and the biggest mark of my believe in the potential of this organization both interms of the market space with operate, the country we operate and in the management team that we have here, it is something I did in January with the approval of the company secretariat, the chairman and the Nigerian Stock Exchange you know defined them. I leveraged myself to buy a significant number of shares in MTN Nigeria. When I leveraged it means I am going to have to pay some interest for that debt, a good chunk of which is paid out of the dividend which I get.but the reason which I did is I really believe there is a lot of capital acquisition in this business. And over and beyond whatever compensation I get from MTN Nigeria there is an opportunity for me in a transparent manner to create value for myself. And as we are doing this secondary offer, I am going to once again buy into it with my own money not with money DASHED (gifted) to me by MTN, so I believe in it. And I believe in this management team, we are grounded, we are humble, we are customer-focused, we are compliant to the regulator and I think we are just so important to the development of this country as a whole. So, as Bolaji said, I will replicate what he is doing with only one child but lots of staff and family around us and I hope that in two years you will judge us by the value that has been created for the shareholders of MTN Nigeria”

…When “Village People” Touched The MC
The master of ceremony for the occasion was fantastic. He was great – even his enemies will admit that.

He started with the proper opening line after a bit of delay- apologies and a bit joke – the apology was echoed by every other person on the high table, including CEO Olutokun Toriola – and put the audience in the proper frame of mind for what was to come. “I assure you the wait will be worth the while” he stated with infectious conviction.

His voice was clear, friendly but firm, and professional yet Funso Aina, a Senior Manager External Relations at MTN Nigeria had a brush with “village people”.

We all know who “village people” are, So it is better not to define “them” for obvious reasons.

They “brushed” Funso Aina and he pronounced “Olutokun” the name of his CEO in “another dialect” and…. later apologized for the common mistake of taking Nigerian Exchange – NGX- Limited as the Nigeria Stock Exchange while introducing its headman Temi Popoola.

…Bolaji Balogun Sneaked In
Bolaji Balogun, (or Mobolaji Balogun) the Chief Executive Officer Chapel Hill Deham is the formidable investment banking firm and lead issuing house came with the event already underway. He made it to the high table with the numbers of those seated there unchanged.

He switched places with Chapel Hill Deham’s Managing Director Kemi Awodein.

Awodein who came early “covered” for the company when the “media announcement” started and Balogun who came in later took over with the event underway.

And you guessed right, Baloji Balogun is a chip off the old block.

He is the son of the living legend and founder of the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) – Otunba Subomi Balogun, the “Olori Onigbagbo” (Leader of the people of faith) in Ijebu, Ogun state as he loves to be addressed.

….Before any other business, the leading multinational telecommunication company has two strong messages for its public.

1, MTN Is Not Raising capital
The share offer is not a direct or indirect means of raising capital.

It is basically a sell-down of shares by the MTN Group to enable retailers who ordinarily wouldn’t get such an opportunity to share in the ownership structure and values being created by MTN Nigeria.

575million shares are on offer at a discounted price of N169.00 Per price.

Discounted price because the share price of MTN Nigeria currently trending on the Nigerian stock exchange is N190.00 per share.

The offer that provides ownership opportunity to everyday Nigerians is part of “values” that come with the 20th-anniversary celebration of MTN Nigeria – sort of.

2, MTN Not Leaving Nigeria
The opportunity to allow Nigerians to have an ownership stake in MTN Nigeria is not part any plan to leave the country.

MTN is not exiting Nigeria.

“There is absolutely not any form of exit of MTN Group from Nigeria. There is no MTN Group without MTN Nigeria and there is no MTN Nigeria without MTN Group. It (share sale) is genuinely a desire to have as many Nigerians as possible become shareholders in this business and share in the value we create going forward” Karl Olutokun Toriola, the Managing Director at MTN Nigeria stated emphatically.

…How Villagers Will Get A Chance To Buy
MTN Nigeria is doing a very “pushfull” campaign to enable every Nigerian, even those in the villages get equal chances at buying the share.

Media communication in regular language – English – and local languages are being deployed beginning from today – December 1- to take the offer to the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.

“Every means possible allowed by the regulatory body will be used to communicate this offer in local language…in a variety of media” – MTN CEO Olutokun Toriola asserted at the media announcement.

Aside from this, a management team led by the Chief Executive Officer will travel across the country to explain the offer and talk about MTN, the history, and the future a very strong move that backs the inherent and apparent gains in the share offer to everyday people.

…Provision For Oversubscription
Thinking ahead of the possibility that the 575 million retail offer of MTN Share – which started at N90.00 when it was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in May 2019 and currently sells at N190.00 – may be oversubscribed.

MTN Nigeria is said to have made provision for added 86million shares owned by the MTN Group to be put into the market.

Added information has it that this against the backdrop that the 575Million share offer is not a one off, it is rather a three-stage process meant to gradually acclimatized the market and give opportunity for people to buy in multiple phases– so if a prospective buyer misses out in one stage, there other stages to work towards.

..Why It is Historic
Temi Popoola, the front person at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) tells why the 575million share offer to retailers is historic.

“It will be the first offer in the Nigerian capital market history that will be end-to-end digital as far as the way you subscribe. In other words, you can just from the comfort of your home through a device subscribe in the space of minutes, under five minutes. It has never happened before. And

I think this is really remarkable…we have no doubt that this offer will change the face of capital market investing in our nation” he explained.

….A Major Reason MTN Nigeria Will Continue To Stay Nigerian
A major reason MTN Nigeria will continue to stay Nigerian and embedded in the all that is Nigeria was provided by Chief Executive Officer Karl Olutokun Toriola.

He pointed out that “ We are Nigerian, Make No Mistake we are a Nigerian entity, we are led by Nigerians, staff by Nigerians and export talents from MTN Nigeria into MTN Group”C

…The Media
Despite Funso Aina, telling journalist present that “We don’t have to phone a friend, ask the audience or do 50/50” – the media appeared to be question shy.

Questions were asked but as much as the inferred challenge in the opinion line the Senior Manager External Relations at MTN Nigeria’s made.

…Added Information
The Offer will open at 8:00 am on 1 December 2021 and close at 5:00 pm on 14 December 2021. The minimum subscription is for 20 shares and lots of 20 shares thereafter. The Offer includes an incentive in the form of one free share for every 20 shares purchased, subject to a maximum of 250 free shares per investor. The incentive is open to retail investors who buy and hold the shares allotted to them for at least 12 months, post the allotment date.

…Honor Unto Whom It Is Due
In what has become a tradition of brutal honesty, Chief Executive Officer Karl Olutokun Toriola gave credit for the foundation for the offer of MTN Nigeria’s share to Nigerians to his predecessor Ferdinand “Ferdi” Moolman.

Moolman, the immediate past Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria is now the MTN Group Chief Risk Office but maintains a seat on the board of MTN Nigeria.

…Special Recognition For CFO Modupe Kadiri
Modupe Kadiri, the Chief Financial Officer at MTN Nigeria was specially recognized and mightily commended by CEO Olutokun Toriola.

“My most trusted, most able, and most challenging CFO Modupe Kadiri” the CEO enthused as he introduced the chief financial officer who though tried to smile but still came out looking like an accountant (They are constantly worrying about revenue and spending in fighting hard to ensure the account stays favorable).

Added Value.

For the many desirous of being a part of the game changer and historic offer – here is the gateway…http://www.mtnonline.com/po/