Botswana’s Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL) initial public offering, scheduled for November, has been postponed to the end of December.
 
The country’s transport and communications ministry said the delay can be attributed to public request for sufficient time to organise funding to purchase shares.
 
“We will extend the awareness campaign being undertaken for this IPO to ensure that a wide reaching and more informative education programme is delivered,” said the ministry in a statement issued through Botswana's Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency.
 
“We have also decided to extend the date for the launch of the share offer, to enable Batswana to identify sources of funding,” the statement reads.  
 
PEEPA announced that the launch date for the initial offer of BTCL shares will be before 31st December 2014, while the period of offer will also be open for up to 8 weeks.
 
44% of the BTCL shares will be available for purchase by citizens and citizen companies, while 5% will be retained for BTCL employees. Government plans to hold a 51% share of BTCL.
 
BTCL is a parastatal that has been operational since 1980.

However, it has been financially unstable and is looking to a privatisation move to spur on its revival.