Uganda – CIPLA-Quality Chemicals IPO closes 24 August
CIPLA-Quality Chemicals Ltd opened its initial public offer (IPO) on 13 August and will close on 24 August, aiming to list on the Uganda Securities Exchange on 24 September. The pharmaceutical company aims to raise $45 million through offering a 18% stake via 657,179,319 shares at UGX256.50 per share, according to Reuters. The company manufactures drugs that include anti-retroviral, anti-malarial and Hepatitis B medicines and its products are sold in Cameroon, Comoros, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
India’s Cipla Limited, Uganda’s Quality Chemicals and the Government of Uganda set up the company as a joint venture in 2005, and TLG Capital and Capitalworks Investment Partners invested in the company in 2009, holding stakes worth 12.50% and 14.40% respectively. Lead transaction advisor was reported to be Renaissance Capital in Kenya and Crested Capital in Uganda is the lead sponsoring broker.
it ends a 6-year listing drought as the previous IPO in Uganda was Umeme in 2012.

Egypt – Giza Spinning & Weaving probably Q4
The IPO of garment maker Giza Spinning & Weaving is set for the fourth quarter, probably November. According to reports, the aim is to sell a 40% stake to finance investment of EGP250m ($14m) into expanded production of garments and yarn. The company employs around 4,800 and was set up in 1979. It is the biggest garment exporter in Egypt by volume and the sixth largest by dollar value, with 87% of production exported to the USA and Europe in 2017. Beltone Financial will be the global coordinator and book runner and a roadshow will run in October, according to Bloomberg.

Uganda – MTN under pressure to list
MTN Group Ltd, which has 55% of the mobile market in Uganda with about 10.9m subscribers, is seeking to renew its 10-year licence in October. Godfrey Mutabazi, executive director of Uganda’s telecom regulator, says that selling shares on the local bourse isn’t a pre-condition for the granting of a new 10-year contract, but Uganda wants “Ugandans to be part of the company,” according to this Bloomberg report.

MTN Ghana – IPO closed 31 July
The IPO of Scancom PLC, the name of telco MTN in Ghana, closed on 31 July as par of bids for a local licence. It was selling 35% of the company, in line with discussions with the regulator. Details are to be announced soon and trading could begin from 5 September. It is set to be the largest listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange and shares could also be bought using the MoMo Wallet mobile-money platform. MTN has more than 221m customers across 22 markets in Africa and the Middle East. It had agreed with telecom regulators in Ghana and Nigeria to list its local units, and the offer was set to raise GHS3.5bn ($725m).

MTN Nigeria “not yet applied”
MTN had not yet applied for a listing by 9 July, according to a news report which quoted the Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously it had been reported that the listing could go live in August, when Reuters reported on pre-IPO documents in February 2018. It said that MTN planned to list by July and raise at least $400m to cut debt in its Nigeria unit, which was valued at $5.23bn. The Nigerian pledge to list cwas part of a settlemetn whcih also included a $1bn fine in 2016.

Airtel – London or Johannesburg in 2019
Airtel is reported to be aiming to raise up to $1.5bn by listing 25% of the equity in its Africa unit in early 2019, according to this report on Bloomberg, as part of plans to reduce its debt by $4.6bn over three years. Airtel is India’s top wireless operator. It also was reported to be planning to sell part of its stake in a $14.6bn company owning tower infrastructure, formed when Bharti Infratel Ltd merges with Indus Towers Ltd. It is owned by billionaire Sunil Mittal and is hoping to keep its Moody’s credit rating at Baa3. It sold about 8,300 towers in 7 African countries for some $1.7bn in 2015 and in 2016 sold its towers in Tanzania for $179m and sold its Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone units for some $1bn the same year. In 2010 it paid an enterprise valuation of $10.7bn for the African assets of Kuwait Mobile Telecommunications Co, also known as Zain.

Kenya – National Oil Corporation aims at Nairobi and London in 2019
The Government of Kenya plans to raise up to KES103bn ($1bn from a dual listing of shares in state-owned National Oil Corporation in Nairobi and London, according to this news report in Business Daily. NOC needs the money to exercise its rights to buy back shares before production at the Turkana oil field, discovered in 2012.
Petroleum principal secretary Andrew Kamau told the Business Daily that the contract for the concession of oil blocks in the Turkana oil fields to existing operators has a clause allowing the government to exercise a back-in right, which essentially means buying back a percentage of the ownership before production kicks in. “When you sign a contract you have a right to buy back some share, before production. The percentage we can buy back is 15 in one block and 20 in the other. The listing should raise enough money for the purchase,” said Mr Kamau, without indicating whether the State would exercise its rights for the entire stake under the clause. The two blocks are owned by British firm Tullow (50%), Africa Oil (25% and Total (25%). The Government and Tullow was to start small scale crude production of about 2,000 barrels a day in 2018, with full production due from 2021 after building a $2.1bn pipeline to Lamu on the coast, according to Reuters.

London – Intercement delays to 2019
Intercement is to delay its $1.8 billion IPO on the London Stock Exchange from the second half of 2018 to early 2019, according to reports. It makes cement and related products in Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Paraguay, South Africa and Egypt and was founded in 2008.

For fuller analysis of recent and upcoming IPOs across Africa, see the website of the Enko Africa Private Equity Fund, a $63.4m fund focused on pre-IPO opportunities across Africa.