African fintech IPO is a lift for dreary London
BREAKINGVIEWS-African fintech IPO is a lift for dreary London The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
By Jennifer Johnson
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - While New York has earned a reputation as the global destination for a stock market listing, one-time rival London has languished. The listing of Airtel Money – the mobile payments arm of telecoms group Airtel Africa AAF.L – won’t single-handedly heal the City’s bruised reputation. But it might at least inject some life into an otherwise dreary landscape for initial public offerings.
The group, which operates in 13 African markets via a network of independent agents, is almost 80% owned by telecoms operator Airtel Africa. It offers everyday financial services – think cash deposits, bill payments and international money transfers – to some 53 million people, many of whom don’t have conventional bank accounts. However, that’s less than half of Airtel Africa’s base of almost 129 million mobile subscribers, meaning there’s plenty of scope for expansion.
New wallet sign-ups are only part of the story. The average total processed value (TPV) per customer, meaning the dollar value of the funds passing through Airtel Money's platform, went from $272 in the 2024 financial year to $339 in 2026. This implies that existing users are becoming more active and taking advantage of more of the platform’s services.
It appears that investors may be prepared to reward the group with a flashy fintech multiple once its shares hit the London market. Management has guided for constant-currency revenue growth in the mid 20% area for the current financial year, as well as a slight contraction in its margin. Assume sales grow 25% to $1.68 billion on a 48% margin, and EBITDA could total almost $808 million. If the market subsequently values Airtel Money at $8.5 billion – the midpoint of the range first reported by the Financial Times – it would trade on an enterprise value multiple of just over 10.
This is in line with more mature, albeit still fast growing, European fintech groups like Adyen ADYEN.AS and Wise WISEa.L. The former, which focuses on merchant payment infrastructure, trades on 11 times its projected earnings for the year to December 31, 2026, per Visible Alpha data. Global money transfer specialist Wise, meanwhile, enjoys a near-identical multiple for the financial year ending next March. Both peers have their respective advantages over Airtel Money: Wise is geographically diversified, for instance, while Adyen operates in developed markets. But there’s no denying the African group’s growth potential. At the very least, a successful float would help bankers make the case for London to other fast-growing peers.
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CONTEXT NEWS
Airtel Money, the mobile money arm of telecoms groups Airtel Africa, announced on September 23 that it plans to file for an initial public offering in London.
According to the Financial Times, the company is hoping to raise $800 million at a total valuation of $8 billion to $9 billion. The listing will be completed via a secondary offering of existing shares, leaving Airtel Money with a free float of at least 10%.
The company had originally aimed for a listing in the first half of 2026 but delayed it, citing unfavourable market conditions.
(Editing by Neil Unmack; Production by Streisand Neto)
((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on JOHNSON/Jennifer.Johnson@thomsonreuters.com))