By Dawit Endeshaw
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Ethiopia’s state-owned Ethio Telecom sold only 10.7% of the shares in its initial public offering in which the government sought to trim its equity in the firm.
The IPO is part of the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s broader plan to expand private investment in the Horn of Africa economy.
During the IPO, which commenced on October 16 and closed on February 14, Ethio Telecom sold 10.7 million shares out of 100 million on offer, Chief Executive Officer Frehiwot Tamiru said at a press conference in the capital Addis Ababa.
The sale generated 3.2 billion Ethiopian Birr ($24.50 million) from 47,377 investors who took part in the IPO.
Frehiwot said the relatively low uptake was partly because the company restricted the sale to only Ethiopian citizens. Ethiopians who had acquired foreign citizenship were not allowed to participate.
“It is because of those restrictions we put on,” Frehiwot said, explaining the low uptake. She added some investors were also put off by the 1 million Birr limit of shares that any individual investor could buy.
($1 = 130.6305 birr)
(Writing by Elias Biryabarema. Editing by Ayen Deng Bior and Mark Potter)
