Airtel’s Mobile Money Arm Heads for London, But at Half the Valuation It Once Hoped For
The Airtel Money London IPO is moving forward, and the numbers attached to it say almost as much as the listing itself. Africa's biggest mobile money business is about to become a London-listed company. Airtel Mobile Commerce N.V., known to its more than 50 million customers simply as Airtel Money, confirmed this week that it intends to float on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. The plan has been public in outline since July, when Airtel Africa first said it had picked London over rival venues in the Middle East. What's new now is the shape of the deal, and it's noticeably smaller than the one investors were originally pitched.
This is a secondary offering, not a fundraising round for the company itself. Existing shareholders, led by parent company Airtel Africa, which holds...