18 – 11 – 2002: - Gambian bank on Ghana Stock Exchange
18 – 11 – 2002: - Gambian bank's gain pushes Accra
bourse up
Accra (Greater Accra)
18 November 2002- The Ghana Stock Exchange made history on Friday when Trust
Bank Limited (TBL) of the Gambia listed on the bourse in the first cross-border
listing within the ECOWAS sub region.
TBL the second largest
bank in the Gambia is putting onto the bourse 30 million ordinary shares with a
par value of one Dalasi, the equivalent of about 423 cedis, to become the 24th
company on the Exchange's official lists for equities.
Trust bank will trade
on the first list of the Ghana Stock Exchange and will be allowed to trade over
the counter in the Gambia.
The bank quoted an
initial share offer price of 10 dalasi, an equivalent of 4,100 cedis. Brokers
showed interest in the shares to push the price at its first trading to 4,400
cedis.
The Bank hopes through
the listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange to gain recognition in the world's
financial market, expand its capital base and the liquidity for its
shareholders as well as get a better share pricing in the formal market than
what pertains in a over-the-counter environment.
The Gambia currently
has no Stock Exchange.
Mr Francis Tweneboa,
Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, said the listing did not only
meet the vision of ECOWAS but also signalled the practicality of a unified
financial market for the sub-region.
He appealed to the
government to assist to position the exchange on a sound pedestal to be able to
attract many such cross-border listings as well as investors into the market.
Mr Tweneboa said the
automation of the operation of the exchange was one of the critical areas where
government assistance would be required.
"The project will
be of immense benefit to the national economy and pave the way for integration
with other stock markets in the West African sub-region," he said.
"Funding support for the installation of the essential system is the
principal limiting factor," he added.
The World Bank
cancelled a 1.425 million-dollar support for the automation project after it
had run for two years, citing adverse macro-economic behaviour, which it said,
could not underpin the project's viability.
The two other markets
in the sub-region, Bourse Regionale des Valeurrs Mobiliers of Ivory Coast and
the Nigerian Stock Exchange, are fully automated. Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Executive
Chairman of Databank Brokerage Firm and Board Chairman of TBL, said his firm
had over the years chalked successes in capital market.
He said this
transaction is one of the best and expressed the hope that government and the
business community would support them to build a good and vibrant financial
sector.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
18 November 2002 - A 400-cedi gain by The Trust Bank Limited (TBL) of the Gambia,
which was listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) on Friday pushed the Accra
bourse up by 5.99 points.
The bank, which is the
24th equity to list on the Accra bourse, has a market capitalisation of 123
billion cedis. It opened trading at 4,100 cedis and sold the highest number of
shares for the day (21,000) to register a closing price of ¢4,500.
This pushed the
All-Share Index to close the week's trading at 1,357.38 points from 1,351.39
points. Despite the entrance of the equity on the bourse, total shares traded dropped
to 51,500 shares from 139,700. The change in the year is 41.99 per cent while
the market capitalisation closed trading higher at ¢5,097.72bn from ¢4,962.43bn.
There were six price
changes - all positive. TBL gained ¢400 to close trading at ¢4,500 while Fan
Milk Limited (FML), Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL), Standard Chartered Bank
(SCB), SSB Bank (SSB) and Unilever Ghana (UNIL) all gained one cedi each.
FML ended at 1,771
cedis, GGL closed at 1,012 cedis, SCB closed at 28,001, SSB Bank ended at 3,959
cedis and UNIL closed at 4,651 cedis.
The following are the
last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL
380
AGC 18,807
ALW 3,700
BAT 1,001
CFAO
67
EIC
4,600
FML
1,771 +1
GBL 500
GCB 3,510
GGL 1,012 +1
HFC 955
MGL 254
MLC 270
MOGL
19,721
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,000
SCB 28,001 +1
SPPC 387
SSB 3,959 +1
SWL 285
TBL 4,500 +400
UNIL 4,651 +1
CMLT 460
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com