Airtel Africa’s decision to list its mobile money business in London is raising pressure on rivals MTN and Safaricom to unlock the value of their own fast-growing fintech businesses, as investors prepare to get the first standalone public valuation of one of Africa’s largest digital payments platforms.
The announcement confirms an earlier BusinessDay report that Airtel Africa had revived plans for a roughly $10 billion initial public offering (IPO) of Airtel Money and was leaning toward London after weighing a listing in the Middle East.
Read also: Airtel Africa revives $10bn mobile money IPO plans, picks London over Middle East
The telecommunications group said on Thursday it had chosen the London Stock Exchange for the initial public offering (IPO) of Airtel Money in the second half of 2026, ending months of speculation over where the business would list.
Sunil Taldar, the chief executive officer of Airtel Africa, said a London listing would give Airtel Money access to a broad international investor base while helping the company unlock the long-term value of one of Africa’s leading fintech platforms.
The IPO is expected to value Airtel Money at about $10 billion, according to market estimates, making it one of London’s biggest listings in recent years and one of the largest African fintech offerings ever.
Beyond the fundraising, however, analysts say the listing could reshape how investors value Africa’s fast-growing mobile money industry.
Unlike MTN Group’s fintech business and Safaricom’s M-Pesa, which remain embedded within their parent telecom companies, Airtel Money will become the first of Africa’s three biggest mobile money operators to trade as a standalone listed company. That will provide investors with an independent benchmark for valuing digital financial services businesses across the continent.
The move is likely to renew calls from shareholders in both MTN and Safaricom, who have long argued that separating their fintech businesses could unlock billions of dollars in shareholder value hidden inside their telecom operations.
MTN has already reorganised its fintech operations into a separate holding structure and sold a minority stake to Mastercard, valuing the business at about $5.2 billion. Safaricom has also faced repeated investor pressure to spin off M-Pesa, East Africa’s dominant mobile money platform, but neither company has announced plans for a public listing.
The listing also reflects growing international investor appetite for African financial technology companies despite a slowdown in global venture capital funding.
Airtel Money serves more than 54 million customers across 14 African markets, offering digital payments, money transfers, savings and merchant services in countries where millions of people still lack access to traditional banking. By transaction value, the platform ranks behind only Safaricom’s M-Pesa and MTN Mobile Money on the continent.
For Airtel Africa, the fintech business has become increasingly important, contributing 21.1 percent of group revenue as demand for digital financial services continues to outpace growth in traditional voice services.
The IPO had initially been planned for the first half of 2026 but was delayed after management cited volatile market conditions and higher operating costs linked to geopolitical tensions, including the Iran conflict, which pushed up global energy and logistics costs.
Those pressures also weighed on Airtel Africa’s latest earnings outlook. The company warned for the second time in four months that higher energy expenses would continue to squeeze near-term operating margins, even as it reported stronger first-quarter revenue and profit supported by rising demand for mobile data, digital services, artificial intelligence applications and favourable currency movements.
The decision to list in London is also a boost for the London Stock Exchange. Airtel had reportedly considered a Middle Eastern exchange before settling on London.
The offering will also fulfil commitments made when Mastercard and TPG’s Rise Fund invested in Airtel Money in 2021, with both transactions structured around an eventual public listing.
For investors, the biggest significance may lie beyond Airtel itself. Once Airtel Money begins trading independently, the market will have its first transparent yardstick for measuring the value of Africa’s mobile money sector, one that could influence strategic decisions, mergers, capital raising and potential spin-offs across the continent’s telecom industry.
For MTN and Safaricom, Airtel’s listing may not simply create a new competitor on the stock market. It could intensify shareholder demands to prove whether their own mobile money businesses are worth more apart than together.
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