The IPO of Telkom, the state-owned, fixed-line operator in South Africa, was the first privatisation by listing since the end of apartheid in 1994 and was the flagship of the government’s restructuring programme. With the government under pressure to honour promises to follow through with the IPO, the listing went ahead on the New York and Johannesburg exchanges, despite weak markets and bearish sentiment toward the sector.
The listing was a huge success, ending 2003 as the best performing NYSE listed IPO of the year. The transaction was the first major Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) IPO since July 2002 and the biggest EMEA telecom IPO since February 2001.
The transaction incorporated the biggest retail offering ever conducted in Africa, with more than 100,000 retail investors – many of them “previously disadvantaged” – embracing equity ownership for the first time.
