Those expecting to see Thursday’s initial public offering launch in New York by Jumia, Africa’s largest online retailer, will have to wait one more day.
The IPO for the Germany-based e-commerce platform that was founded in Nigeria has been delayed until Friday, Apr. 12, according to Bloomberg.
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The reason for the updated timeline, Abdesslam Benzitouni, Jumia’s media relations rep revealed, is due to to company wanting to update the market with some numbers related to its performance in the first quarter of 2019, according to Quartz.
The company, which is described as “Africa’s Amazon”, is hoping that the positive performance of the online retailer will make for a more successful IPO on Friday.
The loss-making Jumia, which has around four million customers across 14 African markets, is the first African tech unicorn, and is set to become the first African startup to list on the New York Stock Exchange, according to Techcrunch.
E-commerce growth in Africa has been immense, with the market growing from $8 billion in 2013 to a projected $50 billion in 2018, according to Intracen.
Jumia plans to sell 13.5 million American Depository Shares at between $13 and $16 each, according to Bloomberg. This listing could therefore raise as much as $216 million for the online retailer.
The company operates in 14 African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt, according to Ventureburn. It has four million customers across the continent.
