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Afreximbank’s Depositary Receipts make 2.3% gain on debut

By Chijioke Nelson
09 October 2017   |   2:04 am
The Depositary Receipts (DRs) of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which was offered to Nigerian investors and across Africa, has now started trading on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM), with the bank topping the list of issuers in terms of capital raised prior to a listing.

Afreximbank

The Depositary Receipts (DRs) of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which was offered to Nigerian investors and across Africa, has now started trading on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM), with the bank topping the list of issuers in terms of capital raised prior to a listing.

At the debut of the trading, the DR, which by regulation, were listed at an initial price of $4.30 each, made a solid start at the weekend as it rose 2..3 per cent at $4.40 per DR and a market capitalisation of more than $170 million.

The listing of the Depositary Receipts represents a big first for Africa’s equity capital markets and marks the achievement of a unique initiative on which Afreximbank had been working with SBM Group, a leading Bank in the financial sector in Mauritius, as lead arranger and depositary of the DRs..

Afreximbank President, Dr. Benedict Oramah, said: “Today, the Government of Mauritius, SBM and Afreximbank make history. We realise the dream of Afreximbank founding fathers. This Depositary Receipts issuance is the first of its kind to be initiated by a multilateral financial institution.

“We welcome the new investors who have made the choice to support Afreximbank and Africa’s development through this issuance. There can be no better vehicle for participating in the dynamic economies across Africa while yielding attractive returns.”

He said that by investing in the DRs, investors would immediately diversify their risks across the 46 economies of the bank’s African member states, with diverse opportunities, vibrancy and risk profiles, thereby protecting themselves from country and currency risks.

According to him, most importantly, their investment would help the lender intensify its trade and project finance activities across the continent, boosting intra-African trade, accelerating industrialization and increasing value-added exports from Africa, in line with its “IMPACT 2021:Africa Transformed” Strategy, he added.

But the Chief Executive of the SEM, Sunil Benimadhu, said: “We congratulate Afreximbank for the successful listing of its Depositary Receipts on SEM and we thank the Board and Management of Afreximbank for having opted for Mauritius as their jurisdictional choice for the launch of this innovative initiative.

The listing and trading of Afreximbank’s DR on SEM confirms the SEM’s successful positioning as an attractive capital-raising, listing and trading platform for well-established African issuers and niche international products.”

Also, Chairman of SBM Holdings Limited, Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing, noted that all the parties involved in the issuance and listing, from the issuing organisation, to the arranger, co-advisors and the stock exchange, were African entities, saying that that made the listing a landmark accomplishment and a groundbreaking success story in Africa’s financial industry.

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