Airtel Money makes London Stock Exchange debut

African digital financial services platform, Airtel Money, made its London Stock Exchange (LSE) debut on Friday, marking the exchange's largest initial public offering (IPO) in several years..

Sunil Mittal, Founder of Airtel and Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said the listing builds on Bharti's significant record of long-term interests in the UK.

"I am delighted to welcome the successful listing of Airtel Money on the London Stock Exchange. This listing is a vote of confidence in the UK as an attractive global destination for investment, with a stable business and policy environment attractive for long-term investors," he said.


The listing also builds on Bharti's significant record of long-term interests in the UK, including the strategic stake in BT announced in 2024, shareholding in Eutelsat (previously OneWeb) alongside the UK Government, and hospitality assets including the Scottish resort Gleneagles.

"In 2019, we listed Airtel Africa in London to leverage the UK's established investor base of patient, strategic capital, and willingness to invest in dynamic emerging market companies. The same conditions made London the obvious choice for this new listing in 2026," Mittal said.

The over-subscription of the Airtel Money offering shows the appetite of the UK market for high-quality investable assets, he added.

Airtel Money has begun conditional trading on the London Stock Exchange The offer price is £1.96 a share, in early conditional trading, the shares touched about £2.00, then eased to about £1.94, slightly below the issue price.

The implied market capitalisation is about USD 7 billion ( £5.3 billion), though this is below the USD 8-9 billion valuation previously estimated.

Dealing so far is conditional and limited to investors who were allocated shares - Unconditional trading is scheduled to begin on October 14, 2026.

Bharti Airtel owns a 79.2 per cent stake in Airtel Africa, while Airtel Africa owns 77.85 per cent of Airtel Money. Effectively, Bharti Airtel has an indirect economic interest of about 61.6 per cent in Airtel Money.