28th Jun 2019 12:02
(Alliance News) - Shares in Airtel Africa Ltd on Friday dropped as the telecommunications and mobile money services provider became the largest company to make its debut on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in 2019.
Airtel Africa is a subsidiary of India's Bharti Airtel and operates mainly in east, central and west Africa.
The stock was trading at 69.00 pence on Friday morning, down 13% from its initial public offering price of 80p, valuing the firm at around GBP2.67 billion.
The offer comprises of 744.0 million new shares and at current levels Airtel's market cap would place the firm safely in contention for a spot on London's mid-cap FTSE 250 index.
Airtel said the offer was oversubscribed with strong interest from a variety of global investors across the UK, US, Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia.
Earlier this month, Airtel Africa priced its IPO in a range of 80p to 100p a share - at the top end of the range the company's market value would have stood at around GBP3.62 billion.
Still, Airtel Africa takes top spot in the London market IPO rankings so far in 2019, trumping second and third placed Network International Holdings and Trainline, which had market capitalisations of GBP2.20 billion and GBP1.68 billion respectively on admission.
However, since their respective listings Network International has gained 33% and Trainline has risen 17%.
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