MTN To List On Ghana Stock Exchange

MTN Ghana, the largest telecommunications company in the country with about 15million subscribers, have submitted its prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to float 35 percent of its shares on the local bourse.

“Let me say MTN have submitted their prospectus to the SEC and the GSE and per our road map they should list soon on the Ghana Stock Exchange. They will be giving out in public offer issue 35% of the company as per the agreement they had with their regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA) when they were given the 4G spectrum,”Mr. Kofi S. Yamoah, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange confirmed.

The mobile network operatory made GH¢7.5m daily as revenue in 2016. The company’s total revenue rose to GH¢2.77 billion in December 2016, representing an increase of 19.8% over the GH¢2.31 billion recorded in 2015. Its data services contributed about 42% of total revenue in 2016.

The listing of the mobile giant is expected to improve the GSE Composite Index. The GSE-CI is a major stock market index which tracks the performance of all companies traded on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) continues to show impressive performance recording 26.44% growth in its overall Composite Index for 2017. This bullish run is expected to continue unabated.

Recording a market capitalization of GH¢64.9million as at February 12 this year, the performance has been seen as the highest in Africa, performing better than the Nigerian and South African stock markets.

Significant gain on the GSE Composite Index comes at the back of much higher trading activity recorded in 2017 by both Equity and Fixed Income markets.

According to data from the GSE, after two years of making consecutive losses, the stock market bounced back positively by recording an impressive performance of the Composite Index rising by 890.63 points to 2,580 points year-on-year to post a return of 52.73percent.

The Financial Stock Index also recorded a gain of 49.51% in 2017 as against the -19.93% recorded in 2016.

Speaking to the B&FT the Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange Mr. Kofi S. Yamoah said, the sterling performance, was due to improved economic fundamentals with a rapid decline in inflation, Treasury Bill rates, a relatively stable cedi and investor confidence in Ghana.

“We are seeing the turnaround to positive gains on the Ghana Stock Exchange due to the removal of tax on capital gains on listed securities. Investor confidence, due to our good democratic credentials and Ghana winning its case against its neighbors Côte d’Ivoire in the maritime boundary dispute at ITLOS, was also very strong.

I can also say that, the visit of various heads of state, and world leaders, including high profile businessmen and women to Ghana, also have played a major role in the Stock market’s improved performance. Remember the market is opened to not only residents in Ghana but even non-Ghanaians,” he added.

Mr. Yamoah further stated that: “The financial sector stocks are expected to record earnings growth in 2018 as the Ghanaian economy continues to recover. The improved asset quality of banks, coupled with the projected expansion in the economy, is expected to lead to an expansion in loan portfolios. This should positively impact bottom-line and growth for banking stocks.”

The total market capitalisation jumped by 11.6% from GH¢52.69billion in 2016 to GH¢58.8billion in 2017, with domestic capitalization recording GH¢16.24 billion in 2017 a 49.3% increase, against the GH¢10.88 billion recorded in 2016.

Total value of shares traded went up by 114.1% from GH¢242.11million in 2016 to GH¢518.38million for the year under review, while the volume of shares traded in 2017 was 322.73 million, representing a 27.7% increase from the 252. 83million recorded in 2016.

The total trading recorded for bills, notes and bondswas GH¢28,713.7 million in 2017 as against GH¢15,599.1million in 2016. This represents an 84.1% increase.

There were no new equity listings in the year under review but two additional equity listings were recorded bring to three the number of equity listings on the stock exchange.

Government of Ghana’s notes and bonds listings on the Ghana Stock Exchange is valued at GH¢16.9million as at the end of 2017.

Total number of investors in both Equities and Debt securities on the Ghana Stock Exchange is about one million.

GAX Listing
The concept of the Ghana Alternative Exchange (GAX) is to address complaints by SMEs about the stringent criteria which make it impossible to use the main stock market to raise equity for their businesses.

The GSE is targeting SMEs with a minimum stated capital of Ȼ250,000 and which have been in operation for at least a year. It will also consider companies that have the potential to be profitable. Ordinarily, a company should have been in operation for at least three years with a minimum stated capital of Ȼ1 million to qualify to list on the main exchange. And once listed, the entity is required to publish its financial statements quarterly. For the new SME market, listed entities will be mandated to publish their statements half- yearly.

Mr. Yamoah disclosed that: “We also have two more companies who will be listing on the Ghana Alternative market within this same period.”

Source: Modernghana