Airtel Money eyes acquisitions after London IPO
October 8th 2026
Airtel Money could tap London’s markets to buy African fintechs after its £5.3 billion listing on Oct. 14, chief executive Ian Ferrao said.
Airtel Money, the mobile money business controlled by Indian billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel Africa, could use its London stock market listing to raise money for acquisitions across Africa, its chief executive said, as the company prepares to begin trading next week.
Ian Ferrao told The Africa Report that a listing would give Airtel Money access to public markets to fund future deals and help consolidate Africa’s fragmented fintech industry.
Airtel Money has set its offer price at £1.96 a share, valuing the business at about £5.3 billion, or roughly $7 billion. It plans to debut on the London Stock Exchange on Oct. 14 and is raising about £601 million, around $800 million, in what would be one of the biggest London listings in recent years.
No new money, for now
The offering consists only of existing shares sold by current shareholders, so Airtel Money itself will not raise fresh capital. “The business is debt-free, capital-light and highly cash generative, which is why this offer consists solely of shares sold by existing shareholders and no new capital is being raised,” Ferrao said.
The company generated $638 million in operating free cash flow in the year ended March 2026. It has about 53 million users across Africa and sees room to grow among the roughly 75 million Airtel telecom subscribers who don’t yet use the service. Airtel Money is the continent’s third-largest mobile money operator by transaction value, behind Safaricom’s M-Pesa and MTN’s MoMo.
Airtel Africa owns about 78% of Airtel Money and plans to remain a long-term shareholder. TPG, Mastercard, the Qatar Investment Authority and Chimetech Holding hold minority stakes.
A second London win for Mittal
The listing follows the success of Airtel Africa itself. Mittal’s Bharti Airtel listed its African telecoms business in London in 2019 at a valuation of about $3.9 billion. Airtel Africa is now worth about $13 billion.
Airtel Money is expected to become the first large sub-Saharan African fintech listed on a global exchange.
Back