Interswitch, Nigeria’s digital payments company is likely to go public on the London Stock Exchange and the Nigerian Stock Exchange this year.
This was confirmed in a telephone conversation between CEO and founder Mitchell Elegbe and Techcrunch. According to him, “a dual-listing on the London and Lagos stock exchange is an option on the table. But “It’s not the only one,” he explained, “to facilitate potential exits” by the company’s private equity investors. “We are also looking at a possible trade sale,”
Interswitch started operations in 2002 as a transaction switching and electronic payments processing company that builds and manages payment infrastructure as well as deliver innovative payment products and transactional services throughout the African continent. The company provides the bulk of Nigeria’s growing volume of electronic bank, government, and corporate financial transactions. According to the company, 32 million consumers use the company’s Verve chip and PIN cards, while its Quickteller digital payment app processed $2.4 billion in transactions.
Sources speaking with Techcrunch confirm that ibankers have been selected and that it is likely to launch in 2016 on the London Stock Exchange just north of $1billion.
Interswitch CEO Elegbe said a possible IPO would also support the company’s plans to expand into additional African countries.
As for Interswitch possibly becoming Africa’s first tech unicorn, “It’s obviously good for the market to demonstrate African tech companies can generate that level of revenue,” said EchoVC’s Omoigui. “On the question of exits and IPOS, we’ve gone from ‘if’ to ‘when’ to potentially ‘who next?’. Minting our first fintech unicorn will make a lot of VC investors take African tech much more seriously.”
Interswitch is majorly owned by Helios Investment Partners and is currently present in three countries – Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.
