London Stock Exchange welcomes Airtel Money to the Main Market

The London Stock Exchange is delighted to welcome Airtel Money (Airtel Mobile Commerce N.V.) to the Main Market. Conditional trading in Airtel Money's ordinary shares began today under the ticker “AMC.L”.

Airtel Money is one of Africa’s leading digital financial services platforms, providing millions of customers and businesses with access to a growing range of financial services and enabling them to participate in the digital economy.

The team celebrating on the balcony at LSEG during the welcome ceremony.

Through its platform, customers can transfer money locally and abroad, make payments, access a virtual debit card, access credit, save, invest, buy insurance and transact with merchants and businesses. Airtel Money also provides payment, collection and disbursement solutions to businesses and institutions, supported by an extensive agent network across its markets.

Launched in 2011 as the mobile money arm of Airtel Africa, Airtel Money today serves approximately 53 million monthly active users across 13 African countries, supported by more than 2.3 million local agents.

The Offer was priced at £1.96 per share, giving Airtel Money a market capitalisation of approximately £5.3 billion. All shares in the Offer are being sold by existing shareholders. Airtel Money is not issuing new shares or raising money through the Offer.

“Today marks an important milestone for Airtel Money as we join the London Stock Exchange and begin the next chapter of our growth.

Over the past 15 years, we have built one of Africa’s leading digital financial services platforms, connecting millions of customers and businesses to an increasingly broad range of financial services. Yet we believe the opportunity ahead of us is even greater.

As a listed company, we will remain focused on expanding our digital financial services ecosystem, deepening financial inclusion and helping accelerate Africa’s transition to a more connected digital economy. In doing so, we believe we can continue to deliver sustainable growth and create long-term value for our customers, partners, communities, governments and shareholders.”

Ian Ferrao
Group CEO, Airtel Money

“This is yet another vote of confidence in our economy and the business environment we've created in the UK. This landmark IPO shows ambitious businesses continue to choose Britain to raise capital, access global investors and boost their growth.

This latest win for the UK shows London remains one of the world's leading financial centres, including for African-focused businesses, connecting companies with deep pools of capital and world-class investors.”

Jonathan Reynolds
Business Secretary

The Airtel Money Market Open Ceremony:

What motivates me to work for Airtel Moneyis the product itself and the impact it has on the people.Airtel Money helps business in that itfacilitates cashless transactions. ItAirtel Money is a product that everybody in this country relies on for their day-to-day use.Good morning everybody and welcome to the London Stock Exchange.What a vibrant way to start the market.I think we should do this every morning.I'm Julia Hoggett, I'm the CEO of the Exchange.It's a delight to welcome you all here this morning, most importantly for the IPO of Airtel Money.[Dame Julia Hoggett, CEO London Stock Exchange] Now, so I think that video demonstratedAirtel Money is already operating at extraordinary scale,serving around 53 million monthly active usersacross 13 African markets.I suspect that's going to continue to grow.Processing more than $200 billion in payments over the past year. But the figuresBut the figures only tell part of the story and I think that video demonstrates exactly that part.At its heart, this is a business helping millions of people to participate more fully in the economy.Moving, saving and managing their money through a platform that they can use every day.Today's £529 million transaction gives public market investors direct exposure to that growth story,while Airtel Africa's continuing controlling stake speaks to its long term belief in the business.It's also wonderful to see retail investors being able to be included in this offering,alongside institutions through retail book.Now, I always say that one of the most important things to remember about these tickers here,is that these are real companies doing real things, serving real people.I think this is an absolutely ample demonstration of what our markets can do, but also why we do it.We do it so that we can support companies like yours to do the remarkable things that you doto enfranchise people across Africa,to have the economic freedom that their hard work deserves.So thank you so much, not only for trusting London with your IPO,but for everything that you do as an organisation.Congratulations again.I'm going to hand over to Harjeet first and then to Ian for his first day as a public company CEO.Companies take a village to be created and there's a huge number of people here who'veworked incredibly hard to make this happen.So, congratulations to all of you as well and Harjeet, over to you.Thank you. Thank you, Julia. Thanks a lot. I won't stand between the wonderful speech thatwe're going to hear and the start of a great, great new journey for Ian.[Harjeet Kohli, Board Director, Airtel Money] But it's been 30 yearsand I'm here representing the group.It's been 30 years that association Bharti has had with the UKand I'll explain that in a bit.I'm based in New Delhi and as a part of the group management board,I’m privileged and honoured to be a part of the board that Ian, you know, is working collaboratively with,creating this franchise that we've created.I'll leave him to talk about Airtel Money, but it was1997 when Airtel was 1/20th of what you're getting listed at, Ian,when British Telecom came and took about 21% stake.They had two board seats and our association started since then and you know, in 2024,we got the proud opportunity of participating in British Telecom's equity cap table,where we are now at 24.95% and Airtel has two board seats there.So it's been a long association. We love it. This is a place of choice.This is for all businesses, for all collaborations.We look for partners emanating from UK, connected to UK.In the last ten years we have intensified this engagement.I can tell you in 2019, 3rd of July, we did same ceremony here, Julia.Nikhil Rathi was here along with us andAirtel Africa got listed on 3rd of July of 2019and the stock price has done good.It's 44x over in the last six and a half, seven years.I'm assuming that has helped the investors, local markets.We have gotten the confidence, or boosted the confidence even furtherto actually get the second listing.But also we had to choose between various jurisdictions but I think UK was without doubt the choice for us.Our association here continues to be very strong.2020 we worked with HMG and took a low-Earth orbit satellite business together and then further itwent on to combine with French Eutelsat.We also have a prized Gleneagles Hospitality marquee property here, as a part of our overall Bharti portfolio.We are proud to be associated with UK.That's why our group chairman for his passion and engagement, for the investments that we've done here,is also honoured to be having the honorary KBE, the most extraordinary order of excellence from UK Kingdom.It is a matter of pride today for us to stand here.I am having a déjà vu I’m going to go see the book and flip back to 2019 and see where my signatures were.But so very happy, so very proud, so very thankful to all of you for hosting us,for giving us this new home away from home.The UK is another home for us, the entire groupand we look forward to this continued association.Thank you so much and Ian, the floor is all yours.Thank you guys. Good morning everyone. Good morning.I've been told as a publicly listed company CEO, I must behave myself and not say anything silly anymore.So that's why my team are here to do that for me.[Ian Ferrao, CEO, Airtel Money] What a moment. What a moment.It’s been an incredibly long journey to get hereand first, I wanted to say thank you to every single person in this room.If you're here, each one of you has contributed towards getting us to this pointand what a landmark moment it is for Airtel Money.A company that we have been building up over many, many years to serve theAfrican nations in which we operate in.This is a company that was built in Africa for Africaand now we're bringing it back to London.So very, very proud of that.I stand here today incredibly tired. I can't tell you how difficult the last few weeks werebut also very, very proud of what we've built.This company is something truly special.You know, it's fast growth, it's profitable, it's scaled.It pays a fantastic dividend but ultimately,what I'm most proud of is the team that has actually built this.You saw the video earlier.I think this moment belongs to the teams across Africa, who have strived day in, day out tobuild financial inclusion across the continent,to acquire customers, to look after our agents,to work with our regulators, supported by this amazing team at HQ that we have in Dubai, India, Europe and Kenya.On the stage today is the ExCo.Ultimately, they have built this business over a long period of time.It's a fantastic team and I think we've got a lot to do.This is just the beginning of a new chapter.The continent has so much potential, you know Africa,it has energy, it has vibrance, it has entrepreneurialism, it has governance improving.It has a middle class rising.This company can only but grow and it's our job to go and extract as much growth as we can going forward.I have a lot of thank yous to say. I'll say that in the room afterwards.Right now, I would just like to thank the shareholders, Harjeet representing Bharti.We have Airtel Africa as our main shareholder. We have Tsega and Ravi from the board here today.Yemi from TPG, the Mastercard team, the QIA team, the Lunate team who came in in 2021,put all the foundations and structure into this business, with all the right governanceand I can only just welcome the new shareholders on board.We've got a fantastic register of new shareholders.We did the allocation late last night and I'm really pleased to start buildingrelationships with the new shareholders and hopefully continuing the success of this amazingAfrican company that is now home here in London.So thank you very much and we'll speak again soon.I think as your first words as a public company CEO, you nailed it.We're good.That concludes the balcony portion of the ceremony, but there is much more to come.So can I ask everybody to come upstairs?I'm going to ask the balcony crew just to stay here a bit longer.If those downstairs can make their way upstairs and then we'll continue the celebrations in The Avenues.Thank you very much indeed, everybody.

Useful links

Check out what's happening at the Exchange

Looking to find out more about accessing capital?

If you'd like to find out more about accessing capital, please submit your details and a member of our team will be in touch.

By submitting this form, you agree to your personal data being shared within the London Stock Exchange Group of companies (LSEG) for the purpose of receiving communications via post, phone and electronic means from LSEG about events, resources, products, and/or services.

For more information on how LSEG uses your data, see our privacy statement. You can adjust your preferences at any time through the preference link in any electronic communication that you receive from us.