Ethiopia is seeking to raise 30 billion birr ($255 million) selling shares in a state-run wireless company, making it the nation’s first initial public offering, and paving the way to start a stock exchange.
Ethiopia Investment Holdings, which controls 27 state-run companies, will sell 100 million shares in Ethio Telecom, Brook Taye, chief executive officer of the company, said at a briefing in Addis Ababa on Wednesday. The nation’s biggest mobile-phone service provider has 78.3 million customers, according to its website.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration earlier this year ended half a century of control of its currency and is easing rules of doing business to lure investment into East Africa’s biggest economy and help rebuild the war-ravaged country. The debut IPO will help start the nation’s stock exchange, with the government pledging to sell shares in six companies in the next five years.
The government and dissident Tigrayan fighters signed a pact in 2022 to end a two-year conflict that had dissuaded investors.
Ethiopia in December became Africa’s latest sovereign defaulter, joining Zambia and Ghana. All three have been trying to restructure billions of dollars in external debt using the Group of 20’s Common Framework mechanism.
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