Vodacom Tanzania pushes back share listing once again

What you need to know:

More than 40,000 Tanzanians bought shares in the initial public offering, Vodacom said at the close of the deal.
Kenyan investors, along those from other EAC member states, were locked out of the Vodacom IPO.
In contrast, the 2008 Safaricom #ticker:SCOM IPO attracted 800,000 applicants and Sh226 billion.

Vodacom Tanzania has once more postponed the listing of shares floated through a mandatory public offering due to regulatory delays blamed on the large number of applicants.

Orbit Securities, lead transaction advisor for the Tsh476 billion (Sh22 billion) offer, says it is still awaiting approval of the share register by the Capital Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA) before the stocks can be listed on the Dar-es-Salaam bourse.

More than 40,000 Tanzanians bought shares in the initial public offering, Vodacom said at the close of the deal.

Kenyan investors, along those from other EAC member states, were locked out of the Vodacom IPO.

Missed date

In contrast, the 2008 Safaricom #ticker:SCOM IPO attracted 800,000 applicants and Sh226 billion.

Shares sold through the Vodacom Tanzania IPO were first due to be listed on May 16, but this was postponed to June 12 following a three-week extension of the offer.

The newest date was again missed.

“After submitting the subscribers’ register to CMSA, we are still awaiting approval of the same. Listing should be within two to three days after receipt of that approval,” Orbit Securities told the Business Daily.

“My estimate is that we’ll get the CMSA approval soon, and hopefully list next week. Unfortunately, we do not have much certainty to give on this.”

Largest IPO in TZ

The Vodacom Tanzania IPO, priced at Tsh850 (Sh39.50) per share, is billed the largest public offering in East Africa’s second-biggest economy, giving its handlers a headache.

“Due to the sheer volume of applications and the size of the Vodacom Tanzania IPO, it has taken slightly longer than initially anticipated to ensure all applications could be processed and to ensure the creation of new central securities depository (CSD) account numbers for the many first-time investors in the DSE,” the telco said in a statement.

National Bank of Commerce, the receiving bank for the offer, struggled to reconcile funds received from multiple stock brokers and investment banks, Vodacom said.

Tanzania’s eight telcos are racing to comply with a new law passed in June last year which demands that all domestic mobile telephone providers issue at least 25 per cent of their shares on the Dar-es-Salaam Stock Exchange.