Airtel Africa Rally Paused, Drops New Hints on Share Buyback

Airtel Africa Rally Paused, Drops New Hints on Share Buyback

Airtel Africa Plc’s momentum has paused following an unusual one-day rally that lifted the telecommunication company’s market value to its 52-week high.

Due to thin trading activities, the telco stock had been flat at N2270 on the Nigerian Exchange until yesterday, when the company’s price surged by 10%, a rare move that boosted the local bourse’s performance.

However, the telecom company’s momentum disappeared after hitting a new 12-month high of N2497 per share. Some equity analysts think Airtel Africa’s trading activities have not been impressive since its massive share buyback programme. 

In a regulatory filing, Airtel Africa announces it has purchased 2889 units of its ordinary shares of USD 0.50 each from Barclays Capital Securities Limited pursuant to the authority granted by its shareholders as part of its share buy-back programme.

The purchased ordinary shares will be held in the Company’s treasury, according to Airtel Africa.  The telecom company said following the purchase of these ordinary shares, the remaining ordinary shares of USD 0.50 each in issue will be 3,654,881,028, including 10,536,678 treasury shares.

Accordingly, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 3,644,344,350.

It added that this figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine whether they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Airtel said the purchases were made pursuant to the revised arrangements entered into with Barclays Capital Securities Limited, announced on 22 September 2025. 

The telecom company stated that since the commencement of the first tranche of the $100 m share buy-back programme announced on 23 December 2024, the Company has purchased 44,972,354 ordinary shares in aggregate, at a volume-weighted average price of 169.4361 GBP per ordinary share. 

These purchases represent the last purchases under the second tranche of the buyback programme initially announced on 14 May 2025 and subsequently revised on 22 September 2025. This tranche has now been completed in accordance with its terms, Airtel said.  GCR Revises GLNG Funding SPV Rating Outlook to Negative