JOHANNESBURG. — MTN expects to close implementation of its new empowerment deal on Wednesday and Thursday after all conditions were met, it says.The listed cellular operator, Africa’s largest by subscriber numbers, launched its new empowerment scheme in August because its current one, MTN Zakhele, expires this month.
MTN’s new empowerment offering, MTN Zakhele Futhi, is set to be worth R9,9 million, making it among the biggest empowerment deals in SA.
Total applications for the new scheme exceeded the minimum equity raise target, but missed the target equity raise figure of R2,47 billion, MTN says.
The MTN Zakhele Futhi public offer raised R1,094 billion from more than 81 000 applicants from across South Africa. In addition, applications were received from 11 203 qualifying MTN Zakhele shareholders holding in a total of 13,5 million MTN Zakhele shares to re-invest in the new empowerment fund. This equates to R817 million.
MTN says it will subscribe for 27,8 million shares, investing R557 million in the scheme as a result of the missed targets.
The previous scheme, which owned 4 percent of MTN’s share capital, was established in 2010 and listed on the JSE’s empowerment board last November. It last traded at R66, a 3,65 percent drop on its opening price. It had 124 00 black investors, and its value gained nearly fourfold from R20 a share at inception in 2010, to about R77 a share when the share price closed on August 17. That equates to a total return of about 400 percent and a compounded annual growth of about 26 percent.
When it unwinds, it has to pay back all loans and then distribute the residual value to shareholders after allowing for costs.
MTN Zakhele Futhi shares will be issued on Wednesday, MTN says, and those who were unsuccessful in their applications will be paid out by December 23. — IOL.