MTN: CBN, AGF Allegations Makes NSE Listing Challenging

A $10.1 billion demand by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Attorney General of the Federation from MTN Nigeria will make its planned listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) “pretty challenging and awkward.”

The Group’s Chief Financial Officer, MTN, Ralph Mupita, said this yesterday.

The central bank recently asked MTN to repatriate $8.1 billion in monies sent abroad, claiming the funds were sent without proper certification. The company is also facing a $2 billion tax demand. MTN has denied any wrongdoing.

But Reuters quoted Mupita to have said preparation of the company’s initial public offering (IPO) prospectus had advanced.

“We are not sitting here saying the listing is off. The listing is to remain on track,” he was quoted to have told CNBC Africa television.

“It makes the IPO that we had planned pretty challenging and awkward, but we have got to explore other options of continuing to meet the listing requirements,” he said.

MTN has said it will engage with the central bank over the demand. It said the monies sent out of the country were equity dividends.

Sources have told Reuters that the scale of the central bank’s demand affects market conditions, casting into doubt the likelihood that the listing process would be completed by the end of the year, if at all.

Shares in MTN fell nearly a third in Johannesburg in the days after the central bank issued its demand on August 29. Mupita said the shares were oversold and trading below broker consensus. MTN’s shares were down 2.78 per cent on Wednesday.

Mupita said MTN was committed to Nigeria and would stay in the country, adding that the company was looking forward to an amicable resolution to the matters. Nigeria is MTN’s biggest market, accounting for a third of its annual core profit.