The giant Ethio Telecom S.C. has listed its shares for trading on the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX) on 26 May, bringing 45,000 shareholders who paid some paid ETB 3bn ($18.8m) at ETB 300 a share in a high-profile initial public offering (IPO) from October 2024 to February 2025.
Ethio Telecom is the first state-owned enterprise to list and the fourth ESX listing, joining three banks: Wegagen, Gadaa and Awash. It brings to the market one of the biggest and most profitable enterprises in Ethiopia.
The ESX has started to publish weekly equity trading statistics. All three banks traded in the week 18-22 May, for a total of 84 trades and ETB 15.9m ($99,700) value of trading. Ethio Telecom’s ticker symbol is TELE.
Tilahun Esmael Kassahun, CEO of the ESX, said in the ESX announcement on the new listing: “The listing of Ethio Telecom to the ESX Main Market is not only a major win for ESX but also a testament of the commitment of Government of Ethiopia to deepen the capital markets by taking first and exemplary steps of bringing state-owned assets to the market. As the first state-owned enterprise to be listed on ESX, Ethio Telecom sets an important precedent for transparency, public participation, and long-term value creation for both public and private enterprises.”
According to the Ethiopian News Agency report, Frehiwot Tamru, CEO of Ethio Telecom, said the company supports Ethiopia’s broader digital transformation agenda and financial inclusion and the listing is part of “Digital Ethiopia,” aimed at expanding access to digital services and economic opportunity.
According to this report in Capital Ethiopia, Frehiwot described the lengthy conversion from a state development enterprise into a share company (“S.C.”). She said Frehiwot said 96% of applicants have been verified for trading, representing about 45,000 shareholders. Around 10.1m shares, valued at roughly ETB 3bn, have been dematerialized and converted into electronic form.
The remaining 3.4% of investors have not completed verification, mostly due to the issues related to registration on the Fayda digital identification (ID) system. She said that 1,646 investors failed to submit their National ID (Fayda) numbers, while 248 others were identified as non-Ethiopian nationals and were ineligible. The funds invested will be returned and service fees refunded.
The company has set up an investor relations portal with up-to-date financial reports. Frehiwot said that details of the dividend will be communicated during the annual general meeting in September, following the release of Ethio Telecom’s financial performance report expected in July.
Ethio Telecom’s IPO and delayed listing
The 26 May listing ends the extended delays in the first listing of a state-owned enterprise. The much hailed initial public offering (IPO) of shares launched in October 2024 with the offer of 10% of the shares – 100m ordinary shares – to the general public, at ETB 300 each, aiming to raise ETB 30bn ($250m at the time).
At the final count, the Ethio Telecom IPO had applications for 10.7% of the shares, and ETB 3.2bn was submitted. According to this story on Bloomberg, Frehiwot said last year that the IPO failed to hit targets due to restrictions on institutional investors and Ethiopians in the diaspora from participating.
The shares were only available to Ethiopian citizens who were local residents and applied to buy using the telco’s telebirr mobile payment service. The minimum application was for 33 shares costing ETB 9,900 ( then $82.50) up to a maximum 3,333 shares costing ETB 999,900 (then $8,325). See our ACMN story from October 2024. The transaction advisor was D and T Ethiopia (Deloitte).
The IPO was extended from 3 January 2025 and closed on 14 February 2025. There followed a long period of limbo with no published news and funds of the 47,377 applicants held. This delay raised concerns among local and international investors about regulation. Investor relations expert Rob Stangroom of African Financials website for retail investors in major listed companies commented on LinkedIn “This is fantastic news ending a period of worrisome absence of communication and progress. Some good lessons learnt no doubt for future privatization IPOs.”
Still growing fast and $533m in revenue after 130 years
Operating in the country’s communication sector for over 130 years under exclusive government ownership, Ethio Telecom has become the first state-owned enterprise to be officially listed on the ESX.
The drive to complete the IPO and listing comes from Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), Africa’s largest sovereign wealth fund which is making dramatic progress at moving Ethiopia’s dominant state-owned enterprises to better performance financially and operationally. This article on Ethiopian News Agency with Deputy CEO Habtamu Hailemichael highlights progress, as EIH reforms have strengthened governance, auditing, and operational efficiency across state-owned enterprises and turned many to recovery and growth, with some rescued from collapse. He said for the first six months of the Ethiopian fiscal year (ends in July 2026), revenues were ETB 1.3 trillion ($8bn), up 51% compared to the first half of 2024/25.
EIH is working on structured preparation of a pipeline of future listings and partial privatizations for stars among its 41 portfolio companies. The holding company is valued at $45bn, while the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds says it has $150bn of assets under management. It is also the key shareholder of ESX and EIH CEO Brook Taye chairs the board of ESX.
Ethio Telecom published strong results for the half year to 31 December 2025, released on 29 January and available on Ethio Telecom’s website. It generated revenue of ETB 85.0bn ($533m), up 37% compared to the first half of the previous year, and including $88.2m in foreign currency.
At 31 December, there were 87.1m telecom service customers, including 3.9m added in the 6 months. The number of 90-day active mobile users climbed to 69.1m. Mobile voice customers increased to 84m (up 8.1% compared to the first half of the previous year), mobile data and internet users increased 12.7% to 49m, and fixed broadband increased by 19.2% to 934,700.
Some 58.6m Ethiopians use telebirr services, up 13.7% on the previous year and there were ETB 1.9 trillion ($12.2bn) in electronic money transfers in the six months. Telebirr also offers savings and micro-loans.
Ethio Telecom is central to the roll out of the National ID (Fayda) and has hired and trained 3,200 employees and uses 3,500 registration devices. It has registered 22m (69%) of the 32m citizens registered nationwide. Nearly half of these were registered between July and December 2025.
The last annual report to 30 June 2025 is also available on the Ethio Telecom website.
Photos of Ethio Telecom listing, the fourth share listing on the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, supplied by the ESX.