Airtel Africa says it has bought back 1,378,910 of its own shares as part of an ongoing buyback programme planned to return $100 million to shareholders of the mobile phone group.
This latest transaction, executed on April 1, 2025, saw shares purchased at prices between 165.20 pence and 167.50 pence each, with a volume-weighted average price of 166.52 pence per share, according to a regulatory filing published on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), on Wednesday.
“The purchased ordinary shares will be held in treasury by the Company,” Airtel Africa says in the regulatory filing. Following the buyback, the telecom operator confirmed it has 3,670,529,876 ordinary shares in circulation, including 3,078,910 treasury shares. The total voting rights now stand at 3,667,450,966, a figure the company said shareholders could use “to determine whether they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company.”
The latest transactions add to a broader repurchase effort that began in December 2024.
“Since the commencement of the share buy-back programme announced on 23 December 2024, the Company has purchased 21,865,738 ordinary shares in aggregate, at a volume weighted average price of 130.5316 GBp per ordinary share,” Airtel Africa says.
In its December 2024 announcement, Airtel Africa disclosed that “the share buy-back programme is expected to be phased over two tranches, with the first tranche commencing today and anticipated to end on or before 24 April 2025. “
“The first tranche will amount to a maximum of $50 million. The Company has entered into an agreement with Barclays CapitalSecurities Limited (“Barclays”) to conduct the first 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. Under this agreement, Barclays will act as riskless principal and will make decisions independently of the company,” Airtel Africa says.
Airtel Africa, which operates in 14 African countries, including Nigeria, and serves over 150 million customers, has been expanding its mobile money services alongside traditional telecoms offerings.
The April 1 buybacks were executed across multiple platforms, including the London Stock Exchange (LSE), BATS Europe, and Aquis Exchange. The LSE accounted for the largest volume, with 948,106 shares traded at an average price of 166.47 pence. Smaller exchanges like Turquoise and CHI-X Europe saw transactions totaling 49,446 and 202,290 shares, respectively.
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