MTN Launches $1.1 Billion Sale of 30% IHS Nigeria Stake to Local Investors
MTN Group has begun the formal process to raise up to $1.1 billion through the sale of its 30 percent stake in IHS Nigeria, directing the stake to local investors in line with regulatory conditions imposed by both the NCC and FCCPC. The transaction is one of Africa's largest pending telecom infrastructure deals and follows conditional regulatory approvals reported on August 27.
IHS Nigeria: now find the $1.1 billion buyer
The rule is settled. The harder question starts today.
Nigeria's regulators have told MTN it must sell 30% of IHS Nigeria — which operates roughly 18,000 towers, the physical backbone of the country's mobile network — to local Nigerian investors at a fair market price. That's a condition, not a suggestion.
But $900 million to $1.1 billion is not local pension-fund territory for most African markets. Who in Nigeria actually has that kind of capital ready, and can absorb it without the deal quietly ending up in the hands of the same small circle of connected money that captures most large Nigerian privatisations?
The selldown condition is the right instinct. Whether the local investor pool is deep enough to make it real is the test Nigeria's capital markets now have to pass.
2 sources
- MTN Group puts 30% stake in IHS up for sale after approval in principle · thecondia.com · T2
- MTN begins process to raise up to $1.1bn from 30% IHS Nigeria stake sale · technext24.com · T2