IHS Towers is finally set to become the largest Africa-focused company on NYSE and possibly a unicorn
- IHS Towers is the biggest operator of mobile phone towers in Africa. It also has presence in the Middle East and South America.
- The company first made attempt to list its shares on Wall Street back in 2018, but the market sentiments weren’t quite positive enough.
- A total of 22,500,000 units of shares are set to be sold at an estimated offering price of between $21.00 and $24.00 per share.
IHS Towers, the company whose telecoms infrastructure makes it possible for millions of people around Africa to make phone calls and browse the internet, has long been mulling an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in America. Right now, that plan is finally closer to reality more than ever before.
In a statement that was made available on its website, the Lagos-based company disclosed that it had recently obtained regulatory approvals to go ahead with the planned IPO. The estimated offering price for the IPO is between $21.00 and $24.00 per share, the statement said.
Already, the company has commenced the process of selling a total of 22,500,000 units of ordinary shares to the public. The statement also said that 18,000,000 units of the shares will specifically be offered by IHS Towers itself, while the remaining 4,500,000 will be offered by ‘certain selling shareholders’.
Also note that the underwriters of the IPO have been given given a 30-day option to either purchase additional 2,700,000 units of shares from IHS Towers or 675,000 ordinary shares from the selling shareholders at the price set for the IPO.
Meanwhile, the lead book-running managers for the IPO are Godman Sachs & Co LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc and Morgan Securities LLC. Also, RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Barclays Capital Inc and Absa Bank Limited will assist with the book-running management. Other financial institutions that will act as co-managers of the IPO are Cowen and Company, LLC, Investec Bank plc, Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited, FirstRand Bank Limited, etc.
While giving insights on the proposed IPO, the CEO of Lagos-based Kairos Capital, Sam Chidoka, told CNBC Africa that “it’s all looking good for IHS Towers. The numbers are looking good. You have EBITDA growing at 21% year-on-year for the past four years. If they continue growing at that level, you’re probably going to have a unicorn sometime this year; probably by the time they release their December results you will have a company valued at about $1 billion. So, I think this is good for the market. It’s also good for a company that started in Nigeria.”
Do note that the IPO will only be made by means of a prospectus, copies of which can be obtained either from Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, or Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Business Insider Africa understands that the IPO could go live this week if the registration that has been filed with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission gets approved as expected.
