20 Mar 2016

Following the close of Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL) Initial Public Offering (IPO) on March 4, 2016, the count of submissions made by Batswana was well in excess of 40 000 offers across the country. 

The massive response from Batswana, BTCL managing director, Mr Paul Taylor, in a press release from BTCL, says exceeded their every expectation and “we are absolutely humbled to be able to assist Batswana to come to the fore to make history.”

When work on the BTCL IPO began, Mr Taylour says, the aim was to ensure that nobody was left behind and effort was made to ensure this.

He thanks Batswana, saying this is a momentous milestone in the nation's history.  “We are thrilled to welcome new shareholders on ,” he says.

This, now means BTCL is on the way to becoming the first listed telecommunications company in Botswana and will also have the largest number of shareholders in the country and on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) when it lists on April 8, 2016, as anticipated.

To assess and allocate all the available shares, the allocation committee, which has begun to meet, was specifically constituted to ensure that as many Batswana as possible own shares in BTCL. 

The committee consists of representatives from BTCL, Ministry of Transport and Communication and Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

Before BTCL lists on BSE, applicants will be advised of shares they own. All those who applied for shares will receive info on their Central Securities Depository (CSD) account by post. 

The CSD account will reflect shares that one owns.

However, as per updates on BTCL's Facebook page, this does not mean those who did not manage to buy shares through the IPO can never ever buy BTCL shares.

 It simply means that they will have to wait until the shares are floated on BSE, but the price will be "floating" as it is traded and thus may not remain at P1 per share.

Now that applicants have paid for their shares and the IPO closed, as proof of purchase they will be advised individually by post and through the press on the results of the IPO. 

No share certificates will be issued, as all shares applied for will be held in electronic form on the CSD. The CSD will provide statements to each investor reflecting the number of BTCL shares they own.

Once it completes its assessment, the BTCL IPO Allocation Committee will allocate shares to various citizens who have applied, in their sole discretion, after consultation with the relevant advisors. 

Once the allocation has been completed, applicants will be advised of their share allocation via post. Additionally, applicants' CSD account details will be shared and their CSD account will also provide statements to them reflecting the number of BTCL shares they own.

From January 11, 2016, 462 000 000 shares, which translated to 49 per cent of government shares in BTCL, were sold to Batswana and citizen owned companies through the stock exchange, at P1 each, to have a stake in the voice and data telecommunications corporation, whilst 51 per cent remained government's share. 

The IPO is one of the key areas to be achieved towards the corporation's privatisation process.

BTCL held nationwide education roadshows to educate and inform Batswana about IPO across various locations, which yielded positive response, as about 500 applications were received per day. Ends