How to apply for the Continental Holdings IPO, step by step

From the News
7 min read
Published Mon 27 Jul

A plain-English walkthrough of what you actually do, what you carry, and what happens on each date — from someone who isn't selling you the shares.

Our main guide explains what the Continental Holdings IPO is and what the company does. This one is narrower and more practical. It answers a single question: what do you actually do?

Before we start, one thing to be clear about. MSE Today does not sell shares. We are an information and portfolio app. We can't take your money, we can't apply on your behalf, and nothing here is advice about whether CHL is a good buy — that's your decision, with your budget, and a licensed stockbroker is the person to talk it through with. What follows is just the mechanics, in order.

Before anything else: the clock

Applications close at 5:00 pm on Monday 27 July 2026. That is a hard deadline at a bank counter, not a website that stays open late.

Here's the reassuring part: there's no separate account you have to set up days in advance. If you've never invested and don't have a CSD account — the electronic account your shares sit in — you don't open it first as its own errand. You complete CSD Form 1 together with your application, in the same visit to a receiving bank, and the account is set up as part of the offer. (Opening a CSD account the ordinary way, outside an offer like this, is the slower path — that's the one that can take days.) So the only clock that really matters is this one: get your completed application in before the deadline, and don't leave it to the very last morning.

And if you don't make it in time, you haven't lost the company — only this fixed price. From 10 August CHL trades on the open market, and anyone with a broker can buy it the ordinary way. That route doesn't have a deadline.

Step 1 — Open a CSD account

Shares on the MSE are electronic. There are no paper certificates, and there is nothing to put in a drawer. Your shares live in an account at the Central Securities Depository — the CSD — with your name on it.

If you've never invested before, you don't have one. You open it with CSD Form 1, and on that form you name a preferred broker. Opening the account is free.

What you need:

- Your National ID (a passport if you don't have one)

- A certified copy of that ID — banks and brokers deal with this every day as part of taking your application in, so it's a smaller errand than it sounds

For the IPO, this happens in the same visit. You don't open the CSD account as a separate errand days beforehand — you hand in CSD Form 1 alongside your application at the receiving bank, and it's set up as part of the offer. Your shares are credited to it by 7 August, before trading starts on the 10th. (Opening a CSD account through a broker the ordinary way, outside an offer, is the slower route that can take days — but that isn't the path you're on here.)

Already have a CSD account? Then this step doesn't apply to you at all. You skip the CSD section of the application form entirely — you just apply, and write your CSD number in the box. You can do that at any of the receiving banks; you aren't tied to whoever opened the account for you.

Step 2 — Get an application form

Forms come from any licensed stockbroker — Continental Capital, Cedar Capital, or Stockbrokers Malawi — or from any branch of the six receiving banks: CDH Investment Bank, National Bank of Malawi, FDH Bank, First Capital Bank, NBS Bank, and Standard Bank.

You can also download a soft copy from the Continental Holdings and MSE websites.

Step 3 — Decide how many shares

The price is fixed. Everyone pays the same: MWK 195 per share. This isn't an auction and there's no haggling.

- The minimum is 300 shares — MWK 58,500

- Above that, you add in multiples of 100 shares (so 400, 500, 600 — not 450)

- There is no maximum

And there is no fee or commission on top of an IPO application. The amount on the form is the amount you send: for 300 shares, MWK 58,500 exactly, nothing added. (Broker commission is a cost of trading shares on the market later — it doesn't apply here.)

Decide this number before you pick up the pen, and decide it against your own budget — money you can genuinely set aside, not money you need in November.

Step 4 — Fill in the form

In BLOCK CAPITALS. The form asks for:

- Your personal and ID details

- The number of shares and the total amount

- Your own bank account — this matters more than it looks. It's where a refund goes if you're allotted fewer shares than you asked for, and where your dividends go for as long as you hold the shares. Get it wrong and you'll be chasing it later.

- Your payment method

- Your preferred broker

- Your CSD number — from Step 1

One quirk worth knowing: you're allowed to submit more than one application, but they get combined and treated as a single one. There's no advantage in splitting.

Step 5 — Pay

You pay in Kwacha into the “CHL IPO” account. Each receiving bank has its own account number, and it is printed on the form — don't take it from a WhatsApp message, a Facebook comment, or anyone who rings you. Take it off the form in your hand, at the branch.

Accepted: cash, banker's cheque, bank draft, electronic transfer, or internet banking / mobile money.

Mobile money counts, and the limit is not the obstacle people expect — wallets here carry high enough transaction ceilings that MWK 58,500 in one transfer is ordinary. If yours won't take it, internet banking or a cash deposit at the branch does exactly the same job.

Keep the proof of payment. You need it in the next step.

Step 6 — Submit, before 5:00 pm on 27 July

Hand in, at any receiving-bank branch:

- The completed application form

- Your proof of payment

- A certified copy of your ID — the branch handles this routinely; it's part of the normal submission, not a separate expedition

That's the application done. Now you wait.

What happens next, date by date

- Monday 3 August — the offer results are published. If more people applied than there are shares (an “oversubscription”), you may be allotted fewer than you asked for.

- Thursday 6 August — refunds for any shares you didn't get, and documents of title, are due. Refunds carry no interest.

- Friday 7 August — the shares are uploaded to CSD accounts.

- Monday 10 August — CHL starts trading on the MSE as the 17th listed company.

From the 10th, the price stops being MWK 195 and starts being whatever buyers and sellers agree on that day. It can go up. It can go down. That's what a market is.

One last thing

If anyone offers to apply on your behalf for a cut, asks you to pay into a personal account, or promises you a guaranteed allocation or a guaranteed return — walk away. The only routes are the ones above: a licensed broker, or a receiving bank, paying into the named “CHL IPO” account, with the account number printed on the official form.

This article is general information about how the application process works, not financial advice, and not a recommendation to buy CHL. All figures come from Continental Holdings' official IPO documents. Confirm the details with a licensed stockbroker or your receiving bank before you apply — and read the prospectus. MSE Today is an information and portfolio app; we don't sell shares.