Telecommunications group MTN’s broad-based black economic-empowerment (BBBEE) scheme – MTN Zakhele – was expected to resume online trading on Monday after “unprecedented” interest in the initiative halted trading on Wednesday.

The group opened trading on Monday, November 25, to allow qualifying black investors the opportunity to buy shares from existing MTN shareholders through an over-the-counter trading system, accessible through an online trading platform and a dedicated call centre.

“The level of interest has exceeded expectations and, as a result, the trading platform has experienced some delays and technical difficulties on an intermittent basis,” MTN Zakhele chairperson Thulani Gcabashe explained.

Despite successfully matching and executing trade amid the technical difficulties, and to avoid intermittently overloading the system, trade was suspended to allow Zakhele to add capacity and retest the system.

Steps were being taken to ensure that the system was sufficiently robust to accommodate high demand, while the call centre was being equipped with the capacity to handle the massively increased call volumes and additional staff have been employed and were working overtime to deal with the volumes “as quickly as possible”.

Gcabashe said that, by the end of the first day of trade, about 93 000 MTN Zakhele shares, with a total value of R8.1-million, were traded, closing at R84 a share.

Nearly 64 000 calls were made to the call centre, with 22 385 unique visits to the website.

“On the second day, over 100 000 shares to the value of R7.8-million were traded, with 79 000 calls to the call centre and 25 000 visits to the website. The MTN Zakhele shares closed at R80 a share on Tuesday,” he added.

Prior to opening up trading, the Zakhele scheme had shown that over 13 500 existing and new shareholders had opened online trading accounts, with more than 6 000 registering on the website, nearly 2 200 through the call centre and over 4 000 during MTN’s investor education and registration seminars across the country.

When trading opened, 13% of shareholders had registered.

“We’re delighted with the high level of interest, as the trading price of the shares depends on demand on the trading platform and liquidity. With this level of interest, this will continue to be a truly successful scheme,” Gcabashe concluded.