Airtel Money dips below 196p offer price on London debut; Kenya among 13 markets

Shares in Airtel Money, the mobile money operator in 13 African countries including Kenya, fell below their 196p offer price on the first day of conditional trading on the London Stock Exchange on 9 October, Reuters reported. The stock first rose to £2.00, then traded at £1.93, Reuters said, after an offer that was several times oversubscribed.

Sharecast, a UK financial news site, reported that the shares trade under the ticker AMC and stood at 192.1p, down 2.0%, at 12:15 BST on 9 October after briefly touching 200p.

The offer price of £1.96 a share values the company at about £5.3 billion, or around US$7 billion, according to the company's announcement of 9 October. Existing shareholders sold 270 million shares at that price, raising about US$703 million, Reuters reported.

All the shares on offer were existing ones, so Airtel Money raised no new capital and the proceeds go to the selling shareholders, TechTrendsKE, a Kenyan technology news site, reported on 1 October. The company said on 9 October that the sellers were its minority shareholders, and that up to a further 27 million shares are being made available by Mastercard Asia/Pacific under an over-allotment option. If the option is exercised in full, the offer is worth £582 million, or about 11% of Airtel Money's share capital at admission.

Airtel Money's parent, Airtel Africa, owned 77.85% before the listing, MT Newswires, a US financial newswire, reported on 9 October. Airtel Africa said in a 1 October announcement that it was expected to remain a long-term strategic shareholder. Airtel Africa's own shares fell 5.6% to 292.4p on 9 October, in line with losses in European and US telecoms stocks, Sharecast reported.

Reuters said Airtel Money offers transfers, bill payments and digital banking on mobile phones in 13 countries, including Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania. MT Newswires reported that it had 53 million active users as of June.

For the year to 31 March 2026, Airtel Africa reported mobile money revenue of US$1.355 billion, up 36.3% in reported currency, and underlying EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of US$689 million, in its results of 8 May 2026. TechTrendsKE reported on 9 October that Airtel Money competes in Kenya with Safaricom's M-PESA.

The retail part of the offer was not open to investors in Kenya or other African markets, TechTrendsKE reported on 1 October. According to the company's 9 October announcement, 8 million of the 270 million shares went to UK-resident retail investors. The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's private-sector arm, was allocated 34,285,714 shares for £67.2 million, the company said.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder of Airtel, called the listing a "vote of confidence in the UK as an attractive global destination for investment," Reuters reported. Airtel Money chief executive Ian Ferrao said in the company's 9 October announcement: "Today is a landmark moment for Airtel Money."

Admission to the London Stock Exchange's Main Market and unconditional dealings are due to begin at 08:00 BST on 14 October.