(Ecofin Agency) - Cabo Verde Telecom is, since 2021, reorganizing its operations. According to its plan, on January 1, 2023, it was supposed to merge two of its business units, CVMóvel and CVMultimedia.

The telecom company Cabo Verde Telecom (CVTelecom) will perform its IPO on the national stock exchange by the end of the year. The information was disclosed by Miguel Monteiro, president of the Cape Verde Stock Exchange, during a press breakfast briefing.

The planned IPO comes at a time when CVTelecom is undergoing a transformation process. In April 2021, the government approved amendments to the company's electronic communications public service concession contract, allowing it to reorganize as needed. One of the flagship projects of the telecom company's transformation strategy is the merger of its CVMóvel and CVMultimedia units into a single entity.

The IPO aligns with the Cape Verdean stock exchange's strategic plan, which aims to increase the number of listed companies to 25 by 2025.  To meet that target, the stock exchange is currently revising its securities code to encourage the listing of Cape Verdean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The revised code includes a reduction in the amount of equity required to list on the stock market. Currently, only four companies are listed on the Cabo Verde Stock Exchange. With CVTelecom and another unnamed company planned to get listed on the exchange by the end of 2023, the number of listed companies will rise to six.

CVTelecom's IPO is expected to improve its access to the financing it needs to deploy its growth strategies and investments. The initiative is also expected to strengthen the company's image among telecom consumers, investors, and shareholders.

As a reminder, the majority of CVTelecom's capital is held by the National Institute of Social Security (57.9%). The company's minority shareholders are the public companies Airports and Air Safety (20%), Sonangol Cape Verde (5%), the State of Cape Verde (3.4%), as well as private national companies (13.7%).

Isaac K. Kassouwi