Airtel Africa buys back 1.9 million shares

Airtel Africa has repurchased a total of 1.9 million shares since it launched the second phase of its $100 million share buyback programme last month, according to regulatory filings at the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

The telecom operator, which is dual-listed in London and Lagos, announced in May its plan to repurchase more shares in the second phase of the programme after completing the first stage, which ran from 23 December 2024 to 24 April 2024.

Airtel Africa aims to buy back a maximum of $55 million worth of shares in the current phase, expecting it to be completed by 19 November 2025.

“The Company has entered into an agreement with Barclays Capital Securities Limited (“Barclays”) to conduct the second tranche of the buy-back and carry out on-market purchases of its ordinary shares with the Company subsequently purchasing its ordinary shares from Barclays,” the wireless operator said.

“Under this agreement, Barclays will act as riskless principal and will make decisions independently of the Company,” it added.

Airtel Africa has stated that the primary purpose of embarking on the share buyback is “to reduce the capital of the company,” noting that all the shares purchased through the programme will be cancelled.

Publicly quoted companies engage in share buybacks to reduce the number of their issued shares and improve their earnings per share, which can boost the value of the remaining shares.

The transactions for the repurchase of the 1.9 million shares were completed across ten deals, according to regulatory filings.

As of Monday, the remaining ordinary shares in issue will be 3.668 billion units, including 7.5 million treasury shares, Airtel Africa stated in a document.

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Consequently, the total number of voting rights in the company currently stands at 3.660 billion.

The company disclosed that it “has purchased 29,039,936 ordinary shares in aggregate, at a volume weighted average price of 139.1748 GBP per ordinary share” since it launched the first tranche of the buyback last December.

For the financial year ended March 2025, Airtel Africa posted a net profit of $328 million, helping it to overturn a net loss of $89 million reported in the previous year.