Celtel Zambia Listed on Local Stock Exchange
Celtel Zambia has been listed on the Lusaka Stock Exchange in an IPO which valued the company at nearly US$1.2 billion after the shares jumped by 13% in early trading. Celtel is only the 19th company to be listed on the local stock exchange.
The company, which controlled by Zain, offered 20% of its stock for the floatation. The sale was three-times oversubscribed from both domestic and overseas investors.
The final shareholder profile is 78.9% held by Zain - via Celtel International, 20% in free float and 1.1% held by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The company also announced plans to spend US$80 million on improving its network coverage in order to cope with subscriber growth which is expected to reach 2.7 million by the end of this year. According to figures from the Mobile World tracker, Celtel ended last year with just under 2 million customers - and a market share of nearly 78%. The country itself has a population penetration level of just 21% and two other operators, Zamtel and MTN.
Posted to the site on 11th June 2008
