Target date for BTCL IPO slides again
Keikantse Lesemela | Tuesday December 9, 2014 13:17
The Ministry of Transport and Communications stated that the exact date for the opening of the offer would be announced early in 2015. The IPO launch has undergone a series of postponements.
The first one was in August 2011, which was postponed to 2012, then August 2014, and the to November 7. It was pushed to December 31st 2014. The Ministry highlighted that the postponement came after the institutional investors concluded that opening over the holiday break would not allow them enough time to conduct their own internal processes.
“Institutional investors felt the BTCL IPO was a unique offering for Batswana providing them more time would help in ensuring more participated after the holiday break,” read a statement from the ministry. It also stated that after considering advice and guidance from the project team, it had been decided that it might be counter productive to expect the relevant authorities to run their own processes.
The initial date for the IPO was postponed to December 31st due to the public’s complaints about financial preparedness. This came after the Ministry of Transport and Communications conducted two Dipitso’s in October. During these gatherings, participants requested to be given time to prepare financially while others indicated that they had limited understanding on the IPO as well as how one can participate and benefit from the IPO.
Recently addressing the media, legal advisor, Rizwan Desai said the BTCL IPO was a difficult process as it was a government project that involved two ministries, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. He said this process required extensive work but it took some time to process the required information. “This is a large corporation, it is a process, there are steps that need to be achieved so it needs time,” he said, adding that the value of shares and the price could not be disclosed until BSE had offered the approvals.
BTCL was formed ahead of the separation of the incumbent operator, Botswana Telecommunications Corporations (BTC) into two entities incorporated under the companies Act being BTCL and Botswana Fiber Networks (BoFiNet) which is wholly owned by the government. Under the BTCL IPO, government is selling 49 percent of its shares to the public, of which five percent has been reserved for BTC employees.
Implementation of BTC’s privatisation commenced immediately after Cabinet approved its privatisation strategy in June 2006. This will be delivered through an employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP), which has been approved by Cabinet. Government will retain the remaining 51 percent of shares.