Jumia Soars

As you know, African e-commerce company Jumia soared on its listing in New York. That is great news. But it is key that the share price holds its value over the next few days. Remember Lyft had a good listing but then gave back its early gains (and more) over the next few trading sessions.

The good news is that Jumia has not only held its value, it has continued to rally, and is now trading at a staggering $43 a share after opening at 19$ last week Friday. It has more than doubled in 5 days.



Reports suggest that MTN still owns around 30% of the company. That equates to R14bn or 7.3% of MTN's market cap. The MTN share price is now back at R100 a share, where it was in July last year before the second Nigerian tax attack.

This Jumia event has reminded the market that MTN has a variety of technology and internet assets that are separate to their core network business. These include a popular ride hailing business in Iran, and other music, content and banking ventures. Those have great potential.

My initial instinct is that they should sell this stake in Jumia. Their Nigerian exposure is big enough with their network services there. But I will leave that decision up to the experts.