Airtel Money, the mobile money arm of London-listed Airtel Africa, has began trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in a high-profile IPO.
Priced at £5.3 billion ($7bn), it is the biggest debut on the LSE in five years. However earlier expectations when the IPO plans were announced were for a $10bn valuation.
The float is expected to have raised somewhere in the region of £500 million for the firm.
The development is a boost for the UK capital markets after UK-based AI infrastructure firm Nscale chose to list in New York rather than London.
Airtel Money operates across 14 Sub-Saharan African countries, with more than 56m active users, and revenue is up over a quarter to $1.36bn in its latest results.
Its legal headquarters are in the Netherlands, with strategic offices in Dubai.
Prior to the IPO, Airtel Africa owned about 78% of Airtel Money while minority stakes were held by TPG, Mastercard, the Qatar Investment Authority and Chimetech Holding.
The IPO was completed through a secondary offering of existing shares. It was originally intended to list in the first half of 2026 but postponed the move amid unfavourable market conditions tied to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
As Poundland faces administration, could it be saved by MBO?
“I think we’ve got relatively good market conditions. Yes, there’s some volatility right now, but if you look at a lot of the indexes, they are performing [well],” Airtel Money CEO Ian Ferrao told Reuters recently. “When it comes down to it, London has deep capital available.
“Our brand is well known, and that’s probably made it easier for us to walk into London and to talk to all of the investors.
“We believe in London and I think it’s going to be a good home for us.”