Mr Ralph Mupita, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group, has expressed his optimism that the shares of MTN Ghana on the local bourse will rebound sooner than later. He thus, encouraged investors to continue investing in the company’s shares.
According to the CEO, though the recent decline by MTN Ghana shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange can be traced to the introduction and the subsequent implementation of the e-levy, the situation is a temporary one.
Highlighting the plans the telecommunication giant is making to help the company’s shares bounce back, Mr Ralph Mupita disclosed the commitment of the company to offload some 6.7 per cent more of its shares on the local bourse to enable the company to reach its target of 30 per cent gain by the end of the year as a key measure to improve the liquidity of its shares.
E-levy Continues to Bite MTN Harder
Meanwhile, as at the trading of Wednesday, May 25, 2022 the share price of the company stood at GHC0.90 per share.
MTN began the year with a share price of GHS1.11 but has since lost 18.9% off that price valuation, ranking it 33rd on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance. The recent performance forced market analysts to attribute the development to the implementation of the E-Levy.
The development has raised concerns among individual and corporate shareholders, compounded by the fact that the company had lost 10 per cent of the stock’s value from April 20 to date.
That not withstanding, the company’s shares is the third most valuable stock on the GSE with a market capitalisation of GHC11 billion which is 17.7 per cent of the entire GSE equity market.
MTN’s stock has been the most traded stock on the GSE over the last three months, trading a volume of 947 million shares valued at GHC909 million over the period with an average of 15 million traded shares per session.
Measures Taken to Restore Hope
In view of the decline, Mr Ralph Mupita outlined a number of measures that are being taken to restore hope in the company’s shareholders and customers.
Key among them was when Mr Mupita iterated the quest to localise the company in Ghana by ceding off 30 per cent of its equity to Ghanaians remained intact.
“We are targeting to get to that 30 per cent no later than the end of the year.”
Mr Ralph Mupita
Mr Mupita in his assurance, however, did not lose sight of the effect on market conditions but noted that “there are always market conditions that may affect us”.
“We are going to try and get to that 30 per cent localisation because we think more and more Ghanaians- individuals and institutions, should own this quality assets.”
Mr Ralph Mupita
MTN Ghana, since it was first listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), has been able to offload up to 23.7 per cent of the company’sshares, leaving 6.7 per cent to go per its target.
“I’m very pleased to say we’ve made progress. We now have precisely 23.7 per cent gone. So now, what we have left is 6.7 per cent of shares to localise. The reason why we are doing that is we want more Ghanaians to enjoy and participate in the economic success of the company over time, because they’re also the consumers.”
Mr Ralph Mupita
The assurance, therefore, is expected to ignite some more activities in the stock market to drive the shares up to levels expected.
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