Airtel Money Plans Potential $800 Million London IPO

Airtel Money has applied for a potential London IPO that would value the company at a minimum of $800 million, one of the largest listings in the UK in recent years. Airtel Africa’s mobile payments operation processed $213 billion in the year to June, with over 53 million monthly active users. In preparation for a possible IPO in London,AirtelMoney has filed the necessary paperwork. Although smaller than anticipated, this initial public offering (IPO) has the potential to be one of the biggest in the city in recent years. Listed on the London Stock Exchange is being considered by the mobile payments provider, which is a part of Airtel Africa Plc, according to a statement made on 23 September. According to the business, the offering would be comprised of holders selling their current shares. Despite the projected sale size of at least $800 million—lower than the $1.5 billion to $2 billion it had hoped for earlier—the offering would still be the biggest in the UK since 2021. Since the London stock market has been hit hard by a lack of first-time share sales for some time, the announcement of Airtel Money's offering is good news for the market. According to its website, Airtel Money has a network of branches and kiosks all throughout Africa where customers may pay bills, apply for microloans, and make purchases. In the twelve months leading up to June, the company processed $213 billion and had around 53 million customers who were active on a monthly basis, according to the statement. The majority of its customers are located in East Africa, but the brand also has a sizable following in Nigeria and French-speaking Africa, according to the data. Following a rule change earlier this year by the Financial Conduct Authority to shorten the time it takes to launch an initial public offering (IPO) by one week, the UK market is now more competitive, prompting the IPO announcement. During a conference call following first-quarter results, Sunil Taldar, CEO of Airtel Africa, mentioned that London was chosen as the listing location due to the city's grasp of fintech and payments, as well as its emerging-market investor base. The offering of the Uzbek national investment fund UzNIF accounted for the majority of the volume, with London IPOs raising less than $700 million thus far this year, according to statistics collated by Bloomberg. With the addition of Airtel Money, the total would surpass one billion dollars. Utmost Group Plc, a wealth management firm, is among several other companies considering initial public offerings (IPOs) before year's end. Financial institutions such as Citigroup, Barclays Plc, Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are working together to arrange the offering. According to Airtel Money, more information about the offer, such as the amount of shares to be offered and an estimated price range, will be revealed in early October.

Original source: StartupTalky