Minority Investors Lose Out in Telcos as IHS Nigeria Delists

Minority investors have completely lost out of enjoying the part of huge profits telecommunications firms are making in the Nigerian market following the delisting of IHS Nigeria Plc from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Since telcos such as MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat Nigeria, which are making huge revenue from Nigerians are not listed on the NSE, IHS Nigeria, which is a leading mobile infrastructure company, was listed on the exchange. Through this listing, some Nigerians, who are shareholders of IHS Nigeria, were indirectly benefitting from the profits of the telcos.

However, the doors have been shot against the shareholders as the NSE has delisted IHS Nigeria Plc from the exchange. This followed the company’s application for voluntary delisting of its 4.4 billion ordinary shares and two preference shares of 5.199 billion units and 2.791 billion units respectively.

Apart from owning their towers, IHS Nigeria last year bought some of the towers sold by MTN Nigeria, Airtel ,and Etisalat, a development that raised investors hopes for more benefits from the company. But with the delisting those hopes have been dashed.

Some market operators said the delisting of IHS Nigeria is bad for both investors and the capital market, considering the fact there have been clamour for telcos to list on the market so that Nigerian investors could share out of the profits.

“While we understand the principle of free entry and exit, I think it is high time the federal government did something to make the telcos share their profits with Nigerians who are spending fortunes to patronise the services of the companies,” a stockbroker said.

Some shareholders of IHS Nigeria, under the aegis of Renaissance Shareholders Association, had last year kicked against the delisting plan and petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) to halt the process until some outstanding issues were are settled.

The shareholders had proposed payment of N20.00 per share to ordinary shareholders as exit price,as against N3.70 proposed by the company.

In a petition to the DirectorGeneral of the SEC, titled: ‘IHS Nigeria Plc Cancellation of Shares and Delistment from NSE: Call for Accountability,’ signed by the association’s president, Olufemi Timothy, the shareholders observed that publication of the 2013 audited financial account