KAMPALA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - MTN Uganda shares rose 3% on Monday, its first day of trading on the Ugandan bourse after a deeply undersubscribed initial public offering (IPO) in which the firm sought to sell 20% of the company's equity.

The telecom operator, a unit of South Africa's MTN Group , launched its IPO https://www.reuters.com/article/uganda-telecoms-idUSL1N2R70FH in October, pricing the 4.5 billion shares on sale at 200 shillings each.

Results of the IPO on Friday showed MTN Uganda had secured just 60% of its target amount, raising 536 billion Ugandan shillings ($151 million). MTN Group's shareholding fell to 83.05% from 96% with the listing, the Ugandan unit said.

The price climbed to 206 shillings after trading began.

"We are delighted with the successful completion of the offer," MTN Uganda Chairman Charles Mbire said at a listing ceremony.

MTN Uganda has a subscriber base of 15 million and offers mobile money financial services. Its parent company said in October it planned to invest 1 trillion shillings over the next three years to improve coverage in the East African country.

Stephen Kaboyo, managing director of Uganda-based Alpha Capital Partners, said in a note that the tepid investor appetite for the firm's IPO appears to have partly stemmed from a "miscalculation of investor perception."

"Important factors seem not to have been well calibrated," he said, adding such factors included properly gauging market appetite, market conditions during the IPO window and properly articulating their value proposition.

The telecoms firm chiefly competes with a unit of India's Bharti Airtel.

MTN Uganda began operations in Uganda in 1998 and secured a 12-year renewal of its license in June 2020 on condition it lists a portion of its equity on the local bourse.

Keith Kalyegira, head of the state-run regulator Capital Markets Authority, attributed the low investor response to "The economic situation, the Covid environment, (and) people watching their savings."

($1 = 3,560.0000 Ugandan shillings) (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Edmund Blair and Carmel Crimmins)