Kelvin Bowoto
According to a new Bloomberg story, Airtel Africa is considering going public with its mobile money operation, which may be valued at more than $4 billion. According to Bloomberg, IPO discussions are still in the early stages, and the company may decide not to go public.
Airtel Money is Airtel Africa’s fastest-growing division. While Airtel’s 2023 profits fell by over 99% to $2 million, compared to $523 million in 2022, due to currency devaluation, Airtel mobile money had a 31.8% revenue increase.
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In 2021, Airtel hinted at a potential public offering for its fintech subsidiary within a few years, following investments of $200 million from TPG and $100 million from Mastercard, valuing the company at $2.65 billion.
Currently, the telecom company provides mobile money services in 14 African nations. It competes with MTN Momo in Nigeria, but it pales in comparison to Kenya’s mobile money behemoth, M-Pesa. It got approval last year to allow consumers to transact up to KES 500,000 ($3,400), up from KES 300,000 ($2,085) previously allowed.
Airtel’s anticipated mobile money IPO is part of a larger trend of investing in African mobile money providers. Mastercard bought a small share in MTN’s mobile money division two years after investing $100 million in Airtel Money.
Techrectory with Agency Report.
