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BPE to list 20% of privatised entities in stock market

By Helen Oji
07 July 2017   |   3:00 am
Efforts by the regulators to revive the primary market segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) received a boost on Tuesday, as the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) has said the agency is currently working with core investors in certain privatised enterprises...

Nigeria Stock Exchange, Lagos

Efforts by the regulators to revive the primary market segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) received a boost on Tuesday, as the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) has said the agency is currently working with core investors in certain privatised enterprises sold by deferred public offering to ensure that they sell at least 20 per cent of such entities to the market through public listing.

Besides, the agency also stated that it was also undertaking a quick assessment of privatized enterprises, especially in the petro-chemical sector with a view to divesting the Federal Government shares through the capital market.

The Director- General of the BPE, Alex A. Okoh, who noted that public listings remain a strategic objective of the reform and privatisation programme of the Federal Government, explained that the BPE would ensure that technical partners are retained in the privatized enterprises over a long term with continued engagement with the relevant authorities to seek certain waivers where necessary to make public listings more easily achievable for the privatized entities.

Presenting a paper titled: ‘Creating An Enabling Environment For Public Listings Of The Economy’s Commanding Heights: The Case For Telecommunications and Energy Sectors which he presented at the 2017 annual national workshop of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers in Abuja on Tuesday, Okoh explained that the privatisation agency would develop policies to attract additional private sector capital into the privatised companies in order to encourage more listings on the stock market.

Furthermore, he added that the Bureau would henceforth ensure that the right core investors with the financial, technical and managerial competences are selected to ensure that they are capable of moving privatised entities to the desired level in order to make them attractive for public listings.

“The BPE is working with core investors in certain privatised enterprises sold by deferred public offering to ensure that they sell at least 20 per cent of such entities to the market via public listing.

“The privatisation agency would develop policies to attract additional private sector capital into the privatized companies which will eventually give confidence to the business and encourage listing”.

Okoh called for the establishment of an institutional framework to reach targets in both public and private sectors and to identify quick wins, medium term goals, long-term achievements.

Also speaking at the event, a former Director-General of the BPE, Mr. Benjamin Ezra Dikki, called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to set up a committee to induce the telecommunications companies in the country to go to the capital market.

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