The prolonged delay by MTN Nigeria to list its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has become a renewed source of worry to capital market stakeholders, as they expressed fear that the action may dampen the zeal of others that had earlier declared interest to come for Initial Public Offering (IPO).
 
Already, blames have gone the way of the Federal Government for failure to include, as part of the license requirements, that it must be listed on the stock exchange, saying it is the major reason for MTN’s delayed action.
 
The telecommunications giant, had in July 2016, announced that its board had resolved to proceed with preparations for a listing of its shares on NSE.The mobile operator had also said the IPO will go ahead “as soon as it is commercially and legally possible”, and had established a management task team with the responsibility to guide the company towards the listing.

According to pre-IPO documents seen by an international online news platform, MTN was to list its Nigerian unit worth $5.23 billion by July 2017.It plans to raise at least $400 million from the IPO to pay preference shareholders and go on a roadshow between May and June.But with the way and manner MTN was handling the issue, market operators said it is now doubtful that MTN IPO and subsequent listing on the stock exchange is possible this year.
 
Specifically, the Managing Director of APT Securities and Funds Limited, Malam Garba Kurfi, said that MTN was dragging the issue because of the way and manner things were handled in the country.“I will not be surprised if they come with another excuse to shift the offer to next year, as there is nothing on the ground to confirm their seriousness. 

Another incident that fueled insinuations that MTN may not approach the market in a near future was a statement by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that neither MTN Nigeria Limited nor any of its advisers or representatives has filed any application on the IPO with the commission.But the MTN Group had earlier indicated that listing on the stock exchange would be subject to “favourable economic conditions”.
 
The increasing political risks, already reflected by protracted bearish investor sentiment and the overall weak performance of the capital market, have heightened speculations that MTN may not list on the local bourse in 2018.Therefore, the stakeholders insisted that government must include listing on the stock exchange as part of license requirements for multinationals going forward.

According to them, if MTN does not list in 2018, it will join a number of companies that have abandoned their 2018 listing ambitions.Reacting to the development, an economist, Johnson Chukwu, told The Guardian that unless Nigerian government adopts what is obtainable in other emerging countries, multinationals like MTN, will not keep to agreements.