Sonatel splits its stock ten for one, cutting the share price to about 4,500 CFA francs from October 26

A student in Dakar who wanted to own a piece of Sonatel this month needed 45,000 CFA francs for a single share, before fees. After October 26, the same money should buy ten. Meeting by video link on Thursday, October 8, the operator’s shareholders approved dividing the stock by ten at an extraordinary general meeting, according to the regional business press.

The mechanics are simple. Share capital stays at 50 billion CFA francs, but it will be cut into one billion shares instead of 100 million, each with a par value of 50 CFA francs rather than 500. The price follows the same rule: the stock closed at 45,000 CFA francs on October 2, which implies a theoretical 4,500 after the split. Someone holding 10 shares will hold 100, worth exactly the same.

A stock that had grown too heavy

Sonatel is by far the biggest company on the BRVM, the stock exchange shared by the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and based in Abidjan. At the October 2 price it is worth about 4,500 billion CFA francs, close to €6.9 billion, or roughly a fifth of the entire equity market. The shares gained almost a third in six weeks, from 34,400 CFA francs on August 20 to 45,000 on October 2, lifted by solid results (net profit of 230 billion CFA francs in the first half of 2026, up 10.5%) and by the split announcement itself.

Contrary to a common belief, it is not the most expensive share on the exchange: the official price list for October 2 had Unilever Côte d’Ivoire at 50,900 CFA francs. But it is the one savers in Dakar know best, and it has accounted for most of the market’s trading in recent weeks. Sonatel has done this before. In 2012 its par value went from 5,000 to 500 CFA francs and its share price from nearly 140,000 to 14,000.

The dividend gets divided, fees may not

The dividend per share is adjusted by the same ratio. For 2025, Sonatel paid 1,933 CFA francs gross per share, or 1,740 net after 10% withholding tax. Restated per new share, that is about 174 CFA francs net: a tenth as much per share, on ten times as many shares. The yield is unchanged.

What can change is the real cost of getting in. On the BRVM, each order carries a brokerage commission set by the broker, known locally as an SGI, usually between 0.5% and 1.5%, plus 0.3% for the exchange and the central depository. As long as those charges are proportional, buying 4 shares at 4,500 CFA francs costs the same percentage as buying 400. Some fee schedules, however, set a minimum charge per order: with a 1,000 CFA franc floor, an 18,000 CFA franc purchase would lose more than 5% to fees. Depending on the broker, there may also be custody fees and a minimum deposit to open an account.

« A single share can tie up more savings than a household wants to expose to one company. »

Gustavo Pessoa, professor of economics and finance at Fundação Getulio Vargas, writing in Financial Afrik (translated from French)

In an opinion piece published by Financial Afrik on Monday, the Brazilian economist argues that savers should be shown how much they actually invest once fees are deducted, and that the split should be judged by the median order size rather than by the number of shares traded, which will rise mechanically.

The split was not the only item on the agenda. Another resolution proposed removing two clauses dating from the 1997 privatisation, which guaranteed the state seats on the board and gave it, together with Orange (42.33% of the capital, against 27.67% for the state), a veto over certain board decisions. As far as we could establish, neither Sonatel nor the BRVM had published the result of that vote by Wednesday morning.

In 2012, according to an analysis published by Le Soleil, the share price rose by about 35,000 CFA francs in the weeks after the announcement, with peaks of 75,000 to 100,000 shares traded per session. This time, too, the stock climbed as soon as the plan was announced in mid-September, and analysts quoted by the news site Africtelegraph warn of a possible technical correction once the split is done. The first session at the new price is Monday, October 26.