Shares in ‘Africa’s Revolut’ dip as greatest debut on London inventory marketplace for 5 years falls flat

African payment giant Airtel Money’s stock market debut is proving to be a hit among retail investors after a dearth of listings in the City.

The payments firm, dubbed Africa’s Revolut, began conditional trading on the London Stock Exchange this morning in a £5.3billion market debut.

Shares, which were open only to investors allocated stock in the offer, were trading flat at around 194p.

But armchair investors are rushing to sign up to the City’s largest IPO in five years ahead of full admission on October 14.

It is the ninth most popular initial public offering on AJ Bell’s investment platform  based on the number of customers applying to take part in the offer, it said.

Airtel Money, which offers mobile payment services in 13 countries across Africa, is a subsidiary of FTSE 100 telecoms group Airtel Africa, whose shares have trebled in less than two years.

Airtel Africa is controlled by Bharti Airtel, the telecoms giant backed by Indian billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises, which also owns a stake of close to 25 per cent in BT.

‘Many people will be hoping for a repeat of this success with the new IPO,’ said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.

‘The long line of retail investors who applied to buy shares in the offer sends a positive signal that the UK stock market is not slowly fading away. 

‘If anything, Airtel Money’s IPO suggests the UK could now be waking up from its slumber.’

It offers a rare glimmer of hope for London after a series of firms have quit the market in recent years. The recent spate of takeovers of London-listed firms by foreign rivals has coincided with a muted IPO pipeline.

Just seven companies have listed in London so far this year, raising a combined £577million, a hefty chunk of which came from the £511million raised by the flotation of Uzbekistan’s national investment fund.

Analysts hope that Airtel’s debut, the fifth biggest in the last 30 years, will prompt a fresh wave of listings.

‘Chief executives sitting on the fence about whether to choose London as a listing destination might be watching Airtel Money’s success with great interest and noting the decent show of support from retail investors,’ said Coatsworth.

‘Airtel Africa’s success will have certainly played a part in Airtel Money also selecting to list in the UK, but so too will the market’s reputation of having a broad range of investors willing to consider companies from any sector and not only being interested in AI-related technology.’

Investors suffered another setback this week after Boots confirmed it would not return to the UK stock market after a sale to Canada’s Weston family.

However, rival Superdrug’s owner AS Watson is reportedly mulling an IPO in the coming months. Waterstones, which delayed its IPO, could return to the table amid a revival in sales.