Kenya's 2008 Safaricom IPO raised $833m and made mobile ownership a national event.

Safaricom was East Africa's most profitable company, making profits of $370 million the year before, and Kenya's largest mobile network, with Vodafone holding 40%.

The government sold 25% of the company — 10 billion shares — at 5 shillings for Kenyans and 5.5 for foreigners. The offer was oversubscribed by more than 500%, so most applicants received only about a fifth of the shares they asked for.

On its June 2008 debut the stock jumped as much as 60% to 8 shillings and closed at 7. With more than 860,000 shareholders, Safaricom had the widest ownership base of any Kenyan company, and the listing was hailed as vindication of the country's privatization policy.

Kenya raised about $833 million for 25% of Safaricom; the firm was valued above $4.5 billion and its shares made up 40% of the Nairobi exchange.

The issue was priced for local retail buyers, not just institutions.

Kenya's mobile market was still young, with only a third of people owning phones.

Heavy oversubscription plus scarce supply pushed the debut up 60%.

A profitable, cash-generative business made the offer low-risk.

A dominant, profitable incumbent can be floated to widen ownership: pricing locals below foreigners and allocating broadly turned the IPO into a national milestone.

The listing added 200 billion shillings to the Nairobi exchange, pushing its total capitalization above 1 trillion shillings, and the Safaricom model became the benchmark for later Kenyan privatizations and East African listings.