MTN-backed Jumia set for New York IPO as African e-commerce takes off
When Christophe Fofana, a 29-year-old taxi driver and student in Ivory Coast, needed a birthday present for his daughter in 2018, he did something he had not done before. He went shopping online.“It was a specific toy, an electric car, that I either couldn’t find in stores or was very expensive,” he said in Abidjan, the commercial capital.He found a gift for the big day on Jumia, the online retailer active in 14 African countries.Fofana is one of more than 4-million customers Jumia Technologies has amassed in the seven years since the company was founded, a number that jumped 48% in 2018.The accelerating growth rate has convinced the company’s co-founders, former McKinsey colleagues Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in New York this week.Jumia is planning to sell 13.5-million American depository shares at $13-$16, raising as much as $216m.The listing is meant to give the company financial flexibility and increase awareness of the brand am...
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