The South African telecom subsidiary in
The company's share price increased by an average of 2% to Shs204 during the entire week, signaling strong confidence in the telco on the bourse.
It raised Shs535.9 billion after floating a 20% stake in an IPO that was the biggest in the East African nation's history, doubling the
MTN Chief Executive Officer,
The South African-based
"A lot of people thought that MTN was not going to succeed, even during the opening period of the offer, there was a lot of negativities, a lot of misunderstanding around the facts and figures," Vanhelleputte said.
He said, the new development is meant to align with the
UCC Executive Director,
She said, of the total share applicants, 87% of Ugandan investors were allocated shares. The east African and retail investors were allocated 9% and 10%, respectively.
USE acting chairman, Richard Byarugaba, said the private investors should learn from MTN experience that there is a lot of money for capital through the stock market instead of going for expensive commercial bank loans.
"The listing is quite significant as it draws the
Data costs and quality issues
Chris Baryomunsi, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance said, MTN should not relax on its mandate now that they have fulfilled a major requirement.
He specifically spoke about the high cost of data and poor quality of voice calls, saying that
He said, that apart from the local person to person communications, the high costs of data are affecting job creation as Business Outsourcing relies heavily on the affordability of the internet.
MTN started its operations in
The company has consistently recorded growth in profits in the past five years, riding mainly on data and mobile money services. It recorded Shs96.3 billion in 2016; Shs 152.6billion in 2017; and Shs 219.5billion in 2018 as profit after tax. The company also recorded Shs269.2billion in 2019 and Shs 321.6billion in 2020.
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