By Chinenye Aunforo and Chinwendu Obienyi
MTN Nigeria has announced a dividend of N174.53 billion, or N8.57 per every 2 kobo ordinary share, to be paid to its shareholders whose names appeared in its register of members at the close of business on April 6, 2022.
According to the telecommunication giant, this brings the total dividend for the year, which ended December 31, 2021, to N13.12, subject to withholding tax.
The announcement came after the company held its third Annual General Meeting in which it disclosed that its first public offer on a digital platform stood at an initial 575 million share units offer with an oversubscription rate of 139.47 per cent.
In a statement sent to Daily Sun, the telecom company said that, in order to manage this surge in subscription, it added 86.25 million share units to the initial share units.
“In all, 661.25 million MTN Nigeria shares were allotted and a total of 126,720 retail investors submitted valid applications and received full allotment. Other institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers, corporates, and foreign portfolio investors who participated in the bookbuild were allotted 72.09 per cent of their applications.
This includes Nigerian pension funds representing approximately 6.5 million Nigerian contributors. Nigerian investors across the country supported the Offer through multiple channels such as receiving agents, issuing houses and rimaryOffer, that is the digital application platform. More than 89 per cent of retail offer subscribers applied through the PrimaryOffer platform (via mobile and web).
In addition, 114,938 new Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) accounts were opened by first-time investors. It was estimated that 76 per cent of the successful subscribers to the public share offer via the digital platform are women while 85 per cent of these are below the age of 40”, the company said.
Speaking on the opportunity that the public share offers to Nigerians, Ernest Ndukwe, Chairman, MTN Nigeria, said: “There was no better way for us to commemorate our 20th anniversary than by giving more Nigerians the opportunity to participate in our future success, in line with our Ambition 2025 commitment to shared value. To do this, we launched an offer for the sale of 575 million shares held by the MTN Group in MTN Nigeria Communications Plc in November 2021. It also leveraged an innovative digital platform to maximise participation, while many of Nigeria’s institutional investors also participated in the bookbuild phase of the offer.”