Investors swap 4.1% stake in MTI

New strategic investors appeared to be taking positions in Mass Telecommunication Innovation (MTI) Plc as about 4.1 per cent of issued shares of the telecommunication-infrastructure company were swapped yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Against the background of Tuesday’s announcement of a plan by a new shareholder to acquire majority stake in MTI, the company came atop the activity chart at the NSE with a turnover of 200 million shares valued at N100 million in five deals.

The transactions yesterday represented 4.09 per cent of the company’s issued shares of 4.89 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each. The transactions were crossed at 50 kobo. MTI has struggled at its nominal price of 50 kobo as it contends with declining bottom-line.

Tingo Mobile, a Nigerian mobile phone manufacturer, had on Tuesday stated that it had agreed to buy a majority stake in MTI for about N4 billion to develop rural broadband in Nigeria.

Chief executive officer, Tingo Mobile, Dozy Mmobuozi, said Tingo will acquire 51 per cent of MTI.

According to him, MTI will be rebranded and remain listed on the NSE.

“We’re using the acquisition to reach out to the mass market,” Mmobuozi said. Lagos-based MTI’s “assets from base stations to license and goodwill and other things, will help penetrate rural Nigeria.”

Bloomberg reported that Telecommunications companies including China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and Johannesburg-based MTN Group Limited are expanding in Nigeria to tap a growing market for mobile and data usage. Africa’s biggest economy had 169 million mobile-phone subscriptions as of March for a population of about 170 million, the Nigerian Communications Commission said on its website.

With many users owning more than one phone, subscriber numbers are expected to grow to more than 200 million in 2017, according to London-based research company Informa Telecoms & Media.

Tingo said it will start selling three smartphones in Nigeria, the first time its devices will be made available to the public rather than to government or corporate customers. The Tingo T5, T500 and T561 models cost N10,000 to N18,000 and are made locally, Mmobuozi said. The Abuja-based company also has operations in Kenya and Malaysia.

Tingo is making GPS tracking systems and mobile point-of-sale devices that can be attached to its phones as it looks to expand its Internet-based services business. New products include a chat application that localizes emoticons, using Nigerian cultural references.

“In the next two months, we must have hit a 10 million subscriber base for our Tingo Chat app,” Mmobuozi said.