Nigeria’s leading payment and transaction processing company, Interswitch, is considering Initial Public Offerings in Lagos and London in 2016.
According to Bloomberg, this IPO will be to expand its operations in Africa. Interswitch currently operates in five African countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Gambia. With the funds from this IPO, it would be looking at expanding into Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana; according to Mitchell Elegbe, the CEO of the company.
In his discussion with Bloomberg, Mitchell said that the company had discussed share sales with banks including Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc and Standard Bank Group Ltd. and may choose advisers for a transaction within a few months.
“We’re looking at doing an IPO,” Elegbe, 43, who founded Interswitch in 2002, said in an interview in Lagos on May 28. “We’re looking at the U.K. and Nigeria. Our industry is one that investors love. They understand it, especially in places like the U.K.”
Interswitch is about 70 percent-held by London-based private equity group Helios Investment Partners LLP, South Africa’s Adlevo Capital Managers LLC and the International Finance Corp., a unit of the World Bank.
