Anxiety as Vodacom listing at Dar stock market is delayed

Dar es Salaam. The listing of the Vodacom Tanzania PLC to the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, which had been scheduled for June 12, has been further delayed, causing anxiety to some of the investors who had bought shares during the Initial Public Offering.

The IPO ended on May 11 and subsequent listing on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) and Vodacom was supposed to be trading at the bourse by now.

“It’s been too silent since the IPO ended. As an investor, I need to know what is going on but neither the company nor the regulator is updating us about the progress,” said one of the investors who refused to be named here.

The company said, however, it was just awaiting regulatory approval to go ahead with listing.

“We are awaiting Capital Markets and Securities Authority’s approval of the final register and eventual listing of Vodacom shares on the DSE. We look forward to welcome our new shareholders to the Vodacom family,” said Vodacom managing director Mr Ian Ferrao in response to queries from The Citizen.

Orbit Securities, a lead transaction advisor for the Sh476 billion IPO, echoed Vodacom’s sentiments saying it is still awaiting approval of the share register from the CMSA.

“Things are going on well and investors should not worry at all. It will be ready soon,” said Juventus Simon, Orbit Securities general manager.

CMSA was not available for comment on the progress.

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

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 Vodacom Tanzania IPO, priced at Sh850 per share, is billed the largest public offering in in the history of IPOs, 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 telcoms 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.

Vodacom is Tanzania’s market leader controlling 31 per cent of the market share by the end of 2016.