Airtel Money, the mobile payments business backed by Bharti Enterprises, made its debut on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Friday, October 9, in the bourse’s largest initial public offering (IPO) in five years. After rising as much as 2.1% at the start of trading, the shares pared gains and slipped nearly 1% below the offer price of £1.96 apiece.
The IPO valued Airtel Mobile Commerce NV, the business’s formal name, at approximately £5.3 billion, or around $7 billion. The offering raised roughly £529 million ($700 million) through the sale of 270 million existing shares by shareholders, including Qatar Investment Authority and TPG Inc.
The shares are trading under the ticker symbol “AMC”. Airtel Africa Plc did not sell any of its existing Airtel Money shares in the offering and is expected to remain a long-term strategic shareholder, supporting the business as it enters its next phase of development as an independently listed company.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder of Airtel and founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, welcomed the listing, describing it as a vote of confidence in the UK as an investment destination for long-term investors.
He said the listing builds on Bharti’s established presence in the UK, which includes a strategic stake in BT announced in 2024, a shareholding in Eutelsat, formerly OneWeb, alongside the UK government, and hospitality assets such as the Scottish resort Gleneagles.
In 2019, we listed Airtel Africa in London to leverage the UK’s established investor base of patient, strategic capital and its willingness to invest in dynamic emerging market companies. The same conditions made London the obvious choice for this new listing in 2026SUNIL BHARTI MITTAL, FOUNDER, AIRTEL AND BHARTI ENTERPRISES
He added that the oversubscription of the Airtel Money offering reflected the UK market’s appetite for high-quality investment opportunities.
Conditional dealings in Airtel Money shares began on October 9, while unconditional dealings and full admission to trading are scheduled to commence on October 14.
Airtel Money’s reach across Africa
Airtel Money operates a network of branches and kiosks across Africa, allowing customers to pay utility bills, arrange microloans and purchase goods. The business processed $213 billion in transactions in the 12 months to June and had around 53 million monthly active users, according to figures previously disclosed by the company.
The listing comes as London seeks to attract more companies to its public markets. Spanish miner Abenojar Tungsten SA, US-based cybersecurity group AlgoSec Inc. and Uzbek logistics group Centrum Holding LLC are among the companies preparing for potential IPOs in the UK capital.