Airtel Money, the sub-Saharan African mobile money business of Airtel Africa (LSE: AAF; NGX: AIRTELAFRI), began unconditional trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market on October 14 under the ticker AMC, following an initial public offering priced at GBP1.96 a share that valued it at about GBP5.3bn ($7bn).
The valuation fell short of the $8bn-9bn reported in the run-up to the offer and the roughly $10bn suggested by media estimates in July, when Airtel Africa selected London after postponing a listing it had targeted for the first half of 2026. It had delayed the float in May, citing market conditions following geopolitical developments.
See IntelliNews: Airtel Money selects London for planned 2026 IPO (July 24, 2026).
The listing raised no new money for the company. The offer consisted of 270mn existing shares, 10% of the 2.7bn in issue, sold by minority shareholders for about GBP529mn ($703mn). Mastercard made up to 27mn further shares available through an over-allotment option, which would lift the offer to GBP582mn, or about 11% of the share capital. The International Finance Corporation took 34.3mn shares worth GBP67.2mn as a cornerstone investor, and the selling shareholders are bound by a 180-day lock-up.
The sellers – TPG-backed Rise Fund II Aurora, Qatar Holding, Mastercard and Abu Dhabi-based Chimetech – invested a combined $550mn in Airtel Money in 2021 at a valuation of about $2.65bn. At the offer price, their pre-float 22.15% stake was worth about $1.55bn, roughly 2.8 times their outlay, and the shares sold in the IPO alone returned more than they originally invested. Airtel Africa, which owns the remaining 77.85%, did not sell.
Airtel Money’s revenue rose 36% to $1.35bn in the year to March 31, 2026, from $990mn a year earlier, with net income of $373mn. The IPO price values the business at about 19 times that profit. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company operates in 13 sub-Saharan African markets and had 56.5mn customers at the end of June, processing transactions at an annualised value of $245bn. It has said it plans to pay out at least 80% of net profit as dividends twice a year.
At the offer price, Airtel Africa’s stake in Airtel Money is worth about GBP4.1bn ($5.5bn). The parent, a FTSE 100 constituent controlled by India’s Bharti Airtel (NSE: BHARTIARTL), had a market value of about GBP11.2bn on October 9, according to AJ Bell, meaning its mobile money holding accounts for more than a third of the group’s market value. Airtel Africa reported group revenue of $6.42bn for the year to March 2026.
Airtel Africa has been listed in London and Lagos since 2019. It is present in Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, the Republic of the Congo and the Seychelles.
The float makes Airtel Money the fifth-largest company by market value to list in London in three decades, excluding the International Main Market, according to AJ Bell. Its conditional debut on October 9 was subdued: the shares touched GBP2.00 early before falling 2% to GBP1.921 by midday, Sharecast reported.