In November, we touched on a few spin-offs happening in global markets, including two in South Africa.

Now we turn our sights to Ethiopia, which is set for a bumper IPO year in 2025. As a country with 123 million people, it has been one of the largest countries without a stock exchange.

The government has set up an exchange and is privatising the economy. The first listing will be the Ethio Telecom. It’s owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, EIH, and has begun offering 10% to local individual investors. Once the initial 10% has been allocated, EIH will sell another 45% to local and international institutional investors. The company is currently valued at $2.2 billion.

EIH owns 27 portfolio companies with a book value of $45 billion and combined revenues of $18.5 billion. It’s working to list 10 companies in the medium term – providing a strong pipeline for East African bankers and investors.

Coca Cola’s African bottling business is also lined up to go public in an $8 billion deal. The entity is waiting for improved market conditions and could go public in 2025 with a dual listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange (“JSE”).

Canal+, the French television broadcaster which just listed in London, may do a secondary listing on the JSE once they acquire MultiChoice Group Ltd, an African broadcaster listed on the JSE.

In December, Telkom, a listed telco in South Africa, announced it had received approval to sell its towers and masts in a $355 million deal to a consortium including Actis, the $14 billion global infrastructure fund.

Though there is a pipeline of deals, the timing on many of these IPOs remains uncertain.