Maxcom IPO reported in final stages

TANZANIANS and foreign investors’ appetite for share sale of rapid growing firms will soon be tested again as Maxcom Africa, an ICT integration company, nears its landmark initial public offering.

Maxcom Africa Executive Director, Juma Rajabu said at a meeting with editors and senior reporters from mainstream media in Dar es Salaam over the weekend that they were in final stages of preparations for the initial public offering in line with a mandatory requirement for telecommunications companies to sell at least a 25 per cent stake on the Dar es Salaam exchange to boost domestic ownership.

He however declined to provide further details saying they were subject to Capital Market and Security Agency (CMSA) approval.

The IPO is expected to test again domestic and foreign investors’ appetite for IPOs after they were enticed by share sell of Vodacom Tanzania, a leading telecommunication company in Tanzania which offloaded 25 per cent shares through IPO in March and listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange last week. Vodacom placed 560 million shares at 850/- each in Tanzania’s biggest initial public offering (IPO), raising 476bn/- ($213 million).

Maxcom Africa PLC is an ICT integration firm owned by native Tanzanians with extensive operations in East African Community (EAC) member states of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

It provides automated fare collection system for public transport such as Dar es Salaam’s Bus Rapid Transit and Kigongo Busisi Ferry in Sengerama, Mwanza, and electronic health services in terms of mobile money and card payment system for hospitals including Muhimbili National Hospital and Bugando referral hospital.

Maxcom also provides utility and service payments where customers pay electricity and water bills through their agents or mobile telephones. It acquired Public Listed Company status in June in preparations to float its shares at the stock market.

The chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, Prof Samwel Wangwe, said in June that Maxcom had filed its prospectus to the Capital Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA) and was waiting for approval from the authority.

He said the listing at the stock market would enable the company operate in compliance with the country’s laws and regulations in line with the Electronic and Postal Communication Act of 2010 and the Finance Act 2016, which require communication operators to offload 25 per cent of their shares to the public.

The IPO is also expected to boost the firm expansion ambition in Africa, he said adding they plan by 2020 to provide not less than 100,000 employments in and outside the country.