We’re inching closer to IPO, announces Halotel

Dar es Salaam. Viettel Tanzania Limited - which trades as Halotel – is now a public limited company (Plc), signalling that the two-year-old telecommunications firm is inching closer to issuance of an initial public offering (IPO).

Speaking during an event to mark the firm’s second anniversary here, Halotel Tanzania deputy managing director Trieu Tanh Binh said the company delivered a prospectus to the Capital Markets and Securities Authorities a few months ago and that the regulators nodded to the change of name.

“We delivered the prospectus and the regulators returned them to us two weeks ago. They indicated the changes that we are required to do before we issue the IPO. As I am talking, we are now known as Halotel Plc,” he said.

According to the Electronic and Postal Communications Act 2010 as amended through the Finance Act 2016, all telecoms operating in Tanzania were required to list 25 per cent of their shares on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange by December 31, 2016.

However, until that time, it was only Vodacom Tanzania that managed to successfully issue one and subsequently listed its shares on the bourse on August 15, 2017.

The rest have had their proposals being sent back for fine-tuning on several occasions.

Trieu said Halotel paid Sh70 billion in various taxes to the government since it started its operations in the country on October 15, 2015. It has covered about 3.5 million subscribers while investing massively to improve its communication infrastructure to positively impact sectors of educational sector and health. It also offers mobile money services through its HaloPesa service.

“We have witnessed a significant growth of subscribers since our inception two years ago….Statistics released by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority show that our company is leading in terms of continuous increase of number of customers. We believe by the end of this year we will be among the top three companies with a huge customer base in Tanzania,” he said. The company, he said, employs 1,200 people directly and 20,000 indirectly.

“We have more than 3000 villages to be connected to telecommunication services for the first time…With our partnership with the Universal Communication Services Access Fund, we will cover some more 100 villages in border areas soon,” he said.

With the growing popularity fast data/internet communication, the company is also planning to move from 3G to 4G LTE service.