Vodacom's Tanzanian subsidiary received approval on Tuesday to list on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and aims to raise Tsh476 billion ($213 million) in the IPO, the market regulator said. It is the first of a series of initial public offerings by telecommunications companies on the domestic stock exchange this year.

Vodacom plans to sell 560 million shares at Tsh850 ($0.38) each, said Charles Shirima, the public relations manager at the Capital Markets and Securities Authority.

Tanzania in June enacted a law requiring phone companies to sell at least a 25% stake of their units in the country on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange to boost local ownership. But companies registered in Tanzania after July 2016 are exempt from the listing requirement for at least two years.

Vodacom is the country’s largest operator with 31% market share, followed by Millicom International Cellular’s Tigo, Bharti Airtel’s domestic subsidiary, and Halotel, a unit of Vietnam’s Viettel Group.

The offering by Vodacom will boost the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange’s market capitalisation by 2.4% to about 20.6-trillion shillings.

He said the initial public offering was scheduled to take place on March 6.