Shares of Bharti Airtel's Africa arm began trading at the London Stock Exchange Friday at 80 pence apiece.
The initial public offer, to raise up to USD 750 million, was oversubscribed with strong interest from a variety of reputed global investors across the UK, US, Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia, Bharti Airtel said in a regulatory filing.
The company has put 744,047,619 new shares on offer, out of which 94.7 per cent of the stocks will be listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and rest in Nigeria.
"The Offer also came with a secondary listing on the Nigeria Stock Exchange with meaningful allocations to Nigerian investors," it said.
Trading for institutional investors began Friday, while retail investors can start trading in the shares from July 3 in the UK, and from July 5 in Nigeria.
"The strong support we have received from institutional investors demonstrates the attractive investment proposition Airtel Africa offers the market," Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said.
Bharti Airtel entered Africa in 2010 with the USD 10.7 billion acquisition of Zain Telecom. The company operates in 14 African countries now.
"This is a proud moment for the team that has built Airtel Africa into the second largest mobile operator in Africa. We are now the first telecom company to simultaneously list on the Premium segment of the London Stock Exchange and Nigerian Stock Exchange through an IPO," Airtel Africa CEO Raghunath Mandava said.
On the basis of the offer price, the market capitalisation of Airtel Africa will be approximately USD 3.9 billion, including the over-allotment option.
Airtel Africa had raised a total of USD 1.25 billion from Warburg Pincus LLC, Temasek Holdings, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd and SoftBank Group Corp in October last year.
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