Airtel Money shares fell below their initial public offering (IPO) price, despite strong investor demand for the African mobile money service’s London listing.
The shares initially rose to £2.00 before slipping to £1.93, below the offer price of £1.96.
The IPO, which was several times oversubscribed, valued the sub-Saharan Africa-focused fintech at around $7 billion and raised approximately $703 million through the sale of 270 million existing shares.
According to Dealogic, the listing was London’s largest since Fermi’s dual listing in September 2025.
The offering involved the sale of shares by existing shareholders, with Airtel Africa, Airtel Money’s parent company, remaining its majority shareholder.
Shares in Airtel Africa fell by 6% in London amid a broader sell-off in telecommunications stocks following SpaceX’s acquisition of spectrum in the United States, which raised new competitive concerns.
Airtel Money provides mobile-based financial services, including money transfers, bill payments and digital banking features, to users in 13 African countries, including Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania.
London-listed Airtel Africa is majority-owned by Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises. Before the IPO, Airtel Africa held nearly 78% of Airtel Money and had indicated that it would remain a long-term shareholder.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder of Airtel and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, described the listing as a “vote of confidence in the UK as an attractive global destination for investment”.
Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said Airtel Money had been among the most popular London IPOs among retail investors on the investment platform.
He noted that Airtel Africa had delivered significant returns to investors since its stock market debut in 2019, with its value increasing by 262% to £11.2 billion.
“Many people will be hoping for a repeat of this success with the new IPO,” he said.
The listing comes as Britain seeks to attract more companies to its stock market after a decade of contraction, during which businesses pursued higher valuations in overseas markets.
The country has simplified its listing rules to encourage more issuers to consider London.
However, several prospective listings in Europe and the United States have been delayed amid rising interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty.
