The Annual General Meeting of Crystal Telecom Limited that was held last week approved a proposal to dissolve the company and distribute the shares held in MTN as excess assets to the shareholders after payments of all the company’s liabilities. With that, current shareholders of CTL will get equivalent shares in MTN Rwanda when the listing happens on a 1:1 basis. MTN Rwanda in December announced plans to list on Rwanda Stock Exchange with 20 per cent to be available for trading by the public. Sources say that the listing is scheduled to take place by June this year. Previously, the Board of Directors of Crystal Telecom has recommended that the shareholders of CTL become direct shareholders in MTN Rwanda when the listing happens through a transaction where CTL would repurchase all its shares from its shareholders in exchange for MTN Rwanda shares as consideration (share swap). However, according to Crystal Telecom CEO, Iza Irame, after engaging Capital Markets Authority, the industry regulator, they decided to close the company and distribute the shares held in MTN as excess assets to the shareholders. “Whilst the share swap proposal left the company as a going-concern, and further approvals were required to delist and close the company, the proposal to close the company first was an avenue to start with the end in mind so to speak,” she said. The AGM also approved the proposed delisting from the stock exchange as well as deregistration once MTN Rwanda is listed. The timelines of the two will be determined by the listing of MTN Rwanda on the Stock Exchange. “The company shall remain listed and trading, until the date of listing of MTN, where it will be simultaneously delisted with the listing of MTN, as the CTL shareholders receive and become direct shareholders in MTN,” she said. The deregistration process is expected to commence immediately upon completion of the delisting, and shall take between three and four months, which is the normal process to close, Irame said. Crystal Telecom was established as a special purpose vehicle to create an avenue for the public to hold shares in MTN Rwanda which were initially held by their parent company, Crystal Ventures Ltd. Given that MTN Rwanda is listing shares that had already been fully paid for, the plan is to list by introduction where the Telco will not be looking at raising capital immediately. Listing by introduction is a way of listing shares already in issue on another exchange and in this case, no marketing arrangement is required as the shares for which listing is sought are already widely held.
