African Capital Markets News

Car dealer offers shares before double listing in Tunis and Casablanca

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.

Two new listings for Tunis Stock Exchange

Two new listings are heading to the Tunisian Stock Exchange (www.bvmt.com.tn) according to Tunisian online news sources www.tustex.com and Tunisia Online News (www.tunisiaonlinenews.com).

Prominent regional reinsurance company Tunis Re (www.tunisre.com.tn) is preparing an initial public offering of its shares in the first quarter of 2010.

In order to prepare, Tunis Re held a first extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (EGM) to convert part of its capital, which consists of investment certificates, into ordinary shares. A second EGM would then increase the share capital through the IPO. The website says the share has been valued at 14 dinars (US$10.63).

Tunis Re was created in 1981 and has been profitable without interruption over 27 years, according to the website. It manages insurance pools including marine, aviation and decennial liability. Shareholders’ equity is said to amount to 50 million dinars ($38 mln).

CTN Tunisia Ferries (Compagnie Tunisienne de Navigation – www.ctn.com.tn) has also just increased its capital from 42.5 mln dinars to 119 mln dinars ($90 mln) and is also preparing an IPO. It has reportedly launched two tenders: i) to assess the impact of listing and ii) to see it through the IPO and listing.

CTN offers regular ferries between the ports of Tunis, Marseille (France) and Genoa (Italy) with passenger and freight ferries. It recently acquired 2 freight vessels (Tunis-Marseille and Tunis-Genoa) which are to be operational in the first quarter of 2010. A car-ferry is being built, to be operational by 2012. It operates 2 large passenger vessels “Ulysse” and “Salambo” and the car-ferry “Carthage”.

It plans to improve competitiveness and consolidate its market share by increasing its participation in international freight transport.