Archive for the 'Listing' Category
August 2nd, 2010 by Tom Minney
Australia’s Minemakers Limited on 27 July became the 63rd company to list on the Namibian Stock Exchange (www.nsx.com.na) when it joined the Development Capital Board (DevX).
Minemakers has interests in phosphate mining – for which it says Namibia has the world’s sixth biggest resource. Fertilizers could see high demand as “soft commodities” including food and agriculture, may grow in value. The company is also developing Wonarah rock phosphate project in Australia.
It is an exploration and mining development company and is already listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (www.asx.com.au) and has a market capitalisation of A$54 million (US$49.3 million). According to a report in The Namibian newspaper (www.namibian.com.na), Managing Director Andrew Drummond said at the listing that it intends to list soon on the Toronto Stock Exchange (www.tmx.com).
The exclusive prospecting licences, including the Sandpiper/Meob marine phosphate some 60km offshore Namibia, are held in a joint venture company, Minemakers Tungeni Joint Venture Exploration Pty (Ltd). Minemakers, via 100%-owned Bonaparte Diamond Mines, holds 42.5% of the joint venture, fellow Australians Union Resources Limited also has 42.5% and local black-empowerment partner Tungeni Investments cc has 15%.
The secondary listing pushed up the overall market capitalisation of the NSX by about N$356 million to nearly N$1.1 trillion (US$148 billion). The DevX now stands at N$18.3 billion (US$2.5billion).
Drummond said preliminary indications are that Namibia has about 1.6 billion tonnes of phosphate, making it the sixth biggest resource in the world. According to the newspaper, Minemakers 2009 annual report says mining could start next year, “subject to a favourable result from the scoping study, and gaining the necessary development funding and government approvals”.
In its regulatory listing advertisements in the local media, Minemakers said it regarded the development of the Sandpiper/Meob project as “one of its top priorities and the natural expansion strategy for establishing two geographic distribution centres – one in Australia and the other in Namibia – to supply growing global demand for phosphate and related fertilizer products”.
Minemakers said the Sandpiper/Meob project is well-placed to develop into a new “phosphate-producing province” in Namibia. The company has another phosphate project at Rocky Point, north of Walvis Bay.
June 29th, 2010 by Tom Minney
Preparations continue in Rwanda for the listing of BRALIRWA, originally said earlier this year to be coming “very soon”. It will be the first Initial Public Offer on the Rwanda Over-The-Counter stock market. Recently Government officials announced the advisers, according to a report in New Times (www.newtimes.co.rw) newspaper.
Brasseries et Limonaderies du Rwanda (www.bralirwa.com) is the only brewer and estimated to have 95% market share, as well as the Coca Cola franchise. It is owned 70% by international Heineken Group and 30% by the Rwandan Government. According to previous reports, the Government wants to sell 25% to the public and 5% to Heineken, but was examining applications to be the transaction adviser and sponsoring broker.
Government has said that advisors will be a consortium of MBEA Kampala, MBEA Security Services Kigali and Renaissance Capital of Nairobi as the lead transaction advisor. Lead sponsoring broker is Dyer & Blair Investment of Kenya and African Alliance, also Kenyan, is co-sponsoring broker.
Sanjeev Anand, the Managing Director of Commercial Bank of Rwanda (BCR) said last week that BCR will join Kenya Commercial Bank as receiving bank, although KCB is the lead receiving bank, according to the report: “Applications will be presented to BCR which will reconcile them with the funds.” He said they had won the role through bidding and on the basis of expertise: “We have the capability to do it, given our experience in preparing IPOs in other countries like Uganda and elsewhere, and we are proud to be involved in the first IPO in the country.”
So far trading on the Rwanda OTC has been mainly treasury and other bonds, with limited trading in the dual-listed shares of KCB. The Rwanda OTC is operated, developed and regulated by the Capital Markets Advisory Council (www.cmac.org.rw).
June 22nd, 2010 by Tom Minney
Tunisian car retailer Ennakl Automobiles (www.ennakl.com), official distributor of Volkswagen, Seat, Audi and Porsche and part of the Group Princesse El Materi Holding, headed by Mohamed Sakher El Materi Holding, is offering 40% of its share capital for sale. This is preparation to a double listing of 30% of its capital on the Tunis stock exchange (www.bvmt.com.tn) and 10% on the Casablanca stock exchange (www.casablanca-bourse.com) in Morocco. The offer is open from 23 June – 2 July, according to a report on Tunis Online (www.tunisiaonlinenews.com).
The company is offering 12 million shares at 10.7 Tunisian dinars (US$7.06) in Tunisia and Dirham 64.22 ($7.16), for a total of TND 128.4 million ($84.7 million). Of the 9 million shares offered on the Tunis stock exchange, 4.4 million are secured for institutional investors.
According to the report, Mr. Mohamed Sakher El Materi, President of Ennakl, said the aim is to increase Princesse Holding group funds for developing its business interests, particularly in the financial sector. The press release says the group has created Banque Zitouna and is creating the Takaful insurance company. It also aims to bring the 2 exchanges closer and increase co-operation and financial exchanges between both countries.
Ennakl wants to expand during the next 5 years (2010-2014) by marketing Seat cars in 2010, Skoda in 2011 and diversifying its Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche brands. It also aims to boost its distribution network from 14 to to reach about 21 official agencies in 2011. It was established in Tunisia in 1965 and privatized in 2006, according to a company press release. It says it is the leading car distributor in the country and second in Africa for Volkswagen after South Africa.
Ennakl is expected to achieve almost TND 378 million turnover by 2010, up by 16% on TND 326 mln in 2009, and net profits TND 27 mln, up from TND 22 mln in 2009. It says it sold 9,617 light cars in 2009.
It would be the second car distributor on the Tunis bourse, after Artes.
June 9th, 2010 by Tom Minney
Rwanda’s Capital Markets Advisory Council (www.cmac.org.rw) expects 4 more Kenyan cross-listings this year on the Rwanda Over The Counter market, which is run by CMAC, bringing the total to 5, according to a report in The New Times newspaper (www.newtimes.co.rw).
Robert Mathu, the Executive Director of CMAC, is reported as saying that the Nation Media Group (www.nationmedia.com) has made a formal approach and mentioned it in their annual report, and the CMAC also expects interest from Equity Bank, Kenokobil and TPS Serena. The companies are already doing business in Rwanda and elsewhere in Eastern Africa.
He is reported as saying: “This means a lot for the Rwandan market as it gets more products and increases the capital markets standards of trading as well as the infrastructure to make it easy for investors to invest.”
The companies also plan to cross list on other regional markets as the East African markets move to much closer integration. Mr Mathu said that cross listing is not about raising new capital and the companies will offer 100% of their shares to Rwandan investors at the trading prices on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (www.nse.co.ke).
The first cross-listing is Kenya Commercial Bank. The big step for this year would be teh first local Initial Public Offering for brewery BRALIRWA, covered on this blog in February.
February 5th, 2010 by Tom Minney
The closure today (5 February at 5pm local time) of the share offer of Uganda’s National Insurance Corporation Limited (www.nic.co.ug) is likely to result in a rush for shares. It is the first listing on the Uganda Securities Exchange (www.use.or.ug) since 2006 and the amount on offer is small, totalling 161,552,000 ordinary shares – 40% of the issued share capital – at a price of Uganda Shilling (UGX) 45 or 2 US cents per share.
The total amount is UGX7.3 billion (US$3.7 mln).
The sale of shares is by the Government of Uganda, which says the price is subsidized. Ugandans get priority and the minimum purchase is 2,000 shares.
According to the NIC website: “This IPO marks yet another milestone in the deliberate use of the divestiture process in Uganda as a core catalyst for the development of the capital markets in the country.
“The Government of Uganda has to-date privatized 6 of Uganda’s successful public companies by way of IPOs. The companies namely are; – Uganda Clays Limited (UCL), British American Tobacco Uganda Limited (BATU), Bank of Baroda (U) Limited (BOBU), DFCU Limited, New Vision Printing and Publishing Company Limited (NVL), and Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited (SBU).”
4% of the issued shares has been reserved for the permanent employees of NIC at the IPO price.
In June 2005 the Government had sold 60% of the shareholding in NIC to Industrial and General Insurance Company Limited (lGI) of Nigeria (www.iginigeria.com), a leading West African insurance company, after a bidding process. NIC was set up in 1964 by Act of Parliament.
According to a report in The East African, Joseph Kibuuka, a research and market development officer at Crested Stocks and Securities, says: “This IPO is not the most exciting we have had. But the market was hungry for something to reignite it and NIC has provided that.”
One question mark in investors’ minds had been outstanding debts of UGX17.7 billion accrued in handling Makerere University’s Deposit Administration Plan – a staff retirement scheme – between 1996 and 2005.
January 4th, 2010 by Tom Minney
An initial public offering (IPO) for Uganda’s National Insurance Corporation (NIC www.nic.co.ug) will be launched on 14 January and close on 5 February, according to a report on the Business Daily website (www.businessdailyafrica.com).
Mr Hassan Mohammed, outgoing joint managing director of Dyer and Blair Investment Bank (www.dyerandblair.com), was reported as saying the listing on the Uganda Securities Exchange (www.use.or.ug) will be on 25 March, after a share allotment on 9 March. Mr Japheth Kato, executive director of Uganda’s Capital Markets Authority, is said to have been satisfied with the preparations, including the prospectus.
It will be another step forward for the USE which has dynamic management but a relatively small economy. The bourse has 11 listed firms, compared to 55 listings on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and 15 on the Dar Es Salaam bourse, nearly half of them in recent years. Uganda Clays and New Vision Printing and Publishing Company were listed on the USE in 2008. Kenyans have also invested in recent IPOs, including Stanbic Uganda.
Other IPOs expected in Uganda in the coming months or years include Sheraton Hotel, Kinyara Sugar Works, Barclays Bank Uganda and Kakira Sugar Works, says the newspaper.
Kenyan companies including Kenya Airways, East Africa Breweries, Kenya Commercial Bank and Jubilee Holdings are cross-listed on all three exchanges while Equity Bank is listed in Uganda and Nairobi.
NIC is 45 years old and Uganda’s biggest underwriter. On offer is 40% of the share capital (amounting to 161.6 million shares), priced a USh45 per share (US$0.02/ 2 cents). In 2005, the Government of Uganda sold a 60% stake to Industrial and General Insurance Company Limited of Nigeria.
The listing has been delayed for 3 years due to disputes with the staff association of Makerere University over a pensions fund managed by NIC. This has not yet been fully resolved, according to the report.
The Government has been working with the Uganda Insurers Association to increase insurance penetration which is behind other countries. It has been receiving dividends from NIC. but says it is selling its stake in order to boost development of Uganda’s capital market.