Airtel Mobile Commerce N.V., the company behind Airtel Money, has set the price of its initial public offering at £1.96 per share in London on Thursday, October 1, 2026, valuing the African digital payments business at an estimated £5.3 billion as it prepares for admission to the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange on October 14.
The pricing represents a significant milestone for Airtel Money and its parent, Airtel Africa Plc, which is seeking to establish the mobile money business as an independently listed company while retaining a strategic interest in its future.
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At the £1.96 offer price, existing shareholders are expected to sell 270 million shares, giving the base offer a value of about £529.2 million.
A further 27 million shares could be sold if the over-allotment option is exercised in full, potentially taking the total secondary share sale to about £582.1 million.
The distinction is important because Airtel Money itself is not raising fresh capital through the IPO.
The shares being offered are existing holdings, meaning the proceeds from the sale will go to participating shareholders rather than into the company’s balance sheet.
Airtel Africa is not expected to sell its Airtel Money shares in the main offer.
The parent company currently beneficially owns 77.85 per cent of Airtel Money and is expected to remain a long-term strategic shareholder after the listing.
The proposed transaction also includes a cornerstone commitment from the International Finance Corporation.
The IFC has agreed to purchase up to £67.2 million, approximately $90 million, of Airtel Money shares from existing shareholders at the offer price, subject to the terms of the transaction.
The public float is expected to stand at about 16.5 per cent of Airtel Money’s issued ordinary share capital if the over-allotment option is not exercised.
That figure could rise to approximately 17.5 per cent if all 27 million additional shares are sold.
Airtel Money expects the resulting free float to make it eligible for inclusion in the FTSE UK indices, adding another potential dimension to the company’s transition from a privately held subsidiary into a separately traded business.
The final valuation is notably below figures reported when the listing was first announced.
On September 23, Reuters reported that Airtel Money was initially targeting a market capitalisation of between $8 billion and $9 billion and seeking to raise around $800 million.
The final £5.3 billion valuation is equivalent to approximately $7 billion.
Reuters reported that the £1.96 pricing would make the transaction London’s largest IPO since Fermi Inc’s dual listing in September 2025, based on Dealogic data, although the size is below the roughly $800 million offering previously reported.
For Airtel Money Chief Executive Officer Ian Ferrao, the listing forms part of the company’s next stage of development after more than a decade of expansion across African markets.
“In just over a decade we have grown into one of Africa’s largest fintech platforms, built upon a scalable technology stack and an agent network that delivers essential financial services to approximately 53 million users every month,” Ferrao said ahead of the listing.
Airtel Money reported approximately 53 million monthly active users as of June 30, 2026, across 13 African markets. Its platform connects consumers, merchants, enterprises and agents, with services including transfers, bill payments, merchant payments, savings, insurance, credit products and virtual cards.
The company’s transaction scale has also expanded sharply.
Its total processed value reached $213 billion in the 12 months ended June 2026, while revenue for the financial year ended March 2026 reached about $1.35 billion. EBITDA stood at approximately $676 million.
Those figures help explain the interest surrounding the listing.
Airtel Money has developed from a mobile operator-linked payments service into a broader digital financial services platform, using Airtel Africa’s telecommunications footprint and agent network to reach customers in markets where access to traditional banking remains limited.
The business was launched within Airtel Africa in September 2011. In 2021, TPG, Mastercard, the Qatar Investment Authority and Chimetech Holding acquired minority interests for a combined $550 million, creating an institutional shareholder base ahead of the planned public-market transition.
The London listing also comes at a significant moment for the exchange itself. London’s IPO market has experienced a prolonged period of subdued activity as companies have increasingly considered other markets, particularly the United States, for public listings.
Reuters reported that Airtel Money’s debut could therefore provide a sizeable international transaction for the London market.
Ferrao previously defended London as the venue for the listing, pointing to its capital base and international investor familiarity.
He has also said the company remains open to a potential UAE dual listing in the future, although completing the London listing remains the immediate objective.
The IPO process is now moving towards its final stage. Conditional trading is expected to begin by October 9, while unconditional dealings are scheduled to start at 8am London time on October 14, subject to completion of the admission process.
The institutional offer is scheduled to close at 2pm London time on October 8, while the retail offer closes at 5pm the same day.
The retail portion is restricted to investors resident and physically present in the United Kingdom, with applications starting from £250 through participating investment platforms, brokers and wealth managers.
The listing will therefore give public-market investors their first direct opportunity to take a stake in Airtel Money, while Airtel Africa retains its dominant ownership position and strategic role.
For the wider African fintech sector, the transaction offers a notable test of how international investors value a large-scale digital payments business built around mobile connectivity, agent networks and financial inclusion.
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For London, it brings a sizeable African technology-led business to the exchange at a time when the market is seeking to attract more major international listings.
