November 16, (THEWILL) – Airtel Africa Plc has said that three major investors, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), TPG, a U.S. private equity firm, and Mastercard have increased their investments in Airtel Money to $500million following the approval-in-principle granted it recently by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate a Payment Service Bank.
Airtel made the disclosure on Tuesday in a notice signed by the group company secretary, Simon O’Hara, posted by the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
This is coming 24 hours after Airtel Mobile Commerce Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of Airtel Africa, had on Monday announced it had received approval-in-principle from the CBN to operate as a super agent in Nigeria’s Agent Network space powered by PSBs.
The telecoms giant had on November 4 received a PSB approval-in-principle licence from the apex bank to drive the CBN financial inclusion strategy.
Airtel said that the fund raising follows previously announced investment transactions by the three firms between March 18 and July 30, 2021.
Mastercard, TPG and QIA have invested previously in the secondary purchase of shares in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV ( AMC BV), a subsidiary of Airtel Africa.
Earlier this year, Airtel Africa put the valuation of its mobile money business on the continent at $2.65 billion.
In the latest round, Mastercard increased its shares in the company by investing $25 million, while TPG and QIA invested $50 million each, summing up to $125 dollars.
“With these second closings, Airtel Africa will have received a total of $500 million cumulative proceeds from the minority stake sales in Airtel Money from the three investors,” it said.
“As previously reported, the proceeds from these secondary stake sale transactions will be used to reduce group debt and invest in network and sales infrastructure in the respective operating countries.
Reports showed that the shares in Airtel Africa, which was N900 at that time, gained 4.39 per cent or N38.30 per unit as at 14:28 WAT in Lagos on Tuesday following the announcement.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
