MTN Nigeria offers incentive shares to shareholders

MTN Nigeria offered incentive shares to shareholders that participated in its share offer conducted in January last year after the company failed to grow its investment in the industry.

In a circular dated January 20, 2023, and addressed to investors, the mobile telecommunication giant said the incentive shares would be allotted to shareholders on certain conditions.

To qualify for the incentive shares, qualified shareholders must have held on to all or some of the offer shares acquired in January last year for a 12 months period.

The document read: “The Offer for sale of 575 million ordinary shares of MTN Nigeria held by MTN International (Mauritius) Limited (the offer) was successfully completed on 31 January 2022, the date on which the Securities and Exchange commission’s (SECS) clearance of the Offer allotment was obtained.

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“The terms of the Offer included an incentive of one (1) ordinary share for every twenty (20) ordinary shares purchased and allotted (the Incentive shares) up to a maximum of two hundred and fifty (250) ordinary shares.

“The incentive shares will be allotted to qualified shareholders who participated in the Offer and held all or some of their offer shares continually from 31 January 2022 to 31 January 2023 (the Qualification Date).

“To quality, a shareholder must meet all 3 conditions below: Purchased and was allotted at least 20 ordinary shares in the Offer; Holds some or all of the shares allotted at the Offer as at the Qualification Date, 31 January 2023 but subject to holding at least 20 ordinary shares and Name must appear in the Register of Members at the Qualification Date,” the statement reads.

MTN Nigeria’s decision to offer incentive shares to its shareholders is likened to compensation for last year’s performance after the firm’s share was not listed among the top-performing assets in the stock market last year.

It also underperformed last year when compared to its market rival, Airtel Africa, with MTN’s shareholders’ investment growing by 18.13 percent as against the 87.05 percent Airtel shareholders recorded in their investment during the period.