, pricing of its IPO of 18,000,000 ordinary shares being offered by IHS Towers, at $21.00 per share.){kind=link}
IHS Holding Limited (IHS Towers), one of the largest independent owners, operators and developers of shared telecommunications infrastructure in the world, will become an African Unicorn once its shares commence trading on the NYSE after announcing today the pricing of its initial public offering of 18,000,000 ordinary shares at a public offering price of $21.00 per share.
Unicorn is the term used in the venture capital industry to describe a startup company with a value of over $1 billion.
IHS had 158.77 million weighted average number of diluted shares outstanding as at June 2021, according to data seen by MoneyCentral.
However, with 328.05 million shares expected to be outstanding after the IPO, the $21 pricing gives the company a market capitalisation of about $6.9 billion.
It will also correspond to a valuation of 5 times 2020 sales as IHS booked revenues of $1.4 billion in 2020, and operating profit of $339 million, data seen by MoneyCentral shows.
IHS also recorded a profit for the first time in 5 years in June 2021, when net income came in at $76.6 million.
The underwriters of the offering will also have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,700,000 ordinary shares from IHS Towers at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discount.
The ordinary shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on October 14, 2021 under the ticker symbol “IHS.”
The closing of the offering is expected to occur on October 18, 2021, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
IHS is the largest independent multinational emerging-market-only tower operator and one of the largest independent multinational tower operators globally, in each case by tower count.
As of June 30, 2021, the firm operated 30,207 Towers across five countries in Africa, three countries in Latin America and one country in the Middle East.
IHS owned 16,522 towers in Nigeria its largest market as at June 2021, its second largest market was Brazil where it owned 4,350 towers in the same period.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the offering. RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Barclays Capital Inc. and Absa Bank Limited are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.
Cowen and Company, LLC, Investec Bank plc, Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited, FirstRand Bank Limited (London Branch), acting through its Rand Merchant Bank division, Academy Securities, Inc., Loop Capital Markets LLC, Samuel A. Ramirez & Company, Inc., Siebert Williams Shank & Co., LLC and Tigress Financial Partners LLC are acting as co-managers for the offering.
The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the final prospectus relating to this offering, when available, may be obtained from any of the following sources:
- Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, via telephone: 1-866-471-2526, or via email: [email protected];
- J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by telephone at: 1-866-803-9204, or by email at: [email protected]; or
- Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by telephone at: 1-800-831-9146.