Umeme IPO wins numerous accolades
Aug 13, 2013
The Umeme Initial Public Offer has been voted the best in Africa in 2012 at the recent Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Finance awards dinner in London, following the electricity distributor’s largely successful initial public offering last year.
By Samuel Sanya
The Umeme Initial Public Offer has been voted the best in Africa in 2012 at the recent Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Finance awards dinner in London, following the electricity distributor’s largely successful initial public offering last year.
The IPO was voted the Deal of the Year 2012 at the African Banker Awards and has been nominated for the Africa Investor Awards.
The utility firm listed 622 million shares on the markets with more than 6,000 Ugandans buying the firms stock.
Panellists were specifically impressed with Umeme’s ability to raise up to $64m through the IPO, valuing the full equity of the company at $165m.
The Umeme IPO proved that an IPO exit is a credible alternative to trade sale in the power infrastructure sector,” Christopher Moore, the EMEA Publisher and CEO, said.
“This transaction cannot only pave the way for future IPOs, but it should also serve as proof that the privatisation process, which was completed in 2003, when Umeme was created, is a credible example of how to privatise an electricity distribution business,” Moore added.
He explained that Umeme was the first company to cross-list into Nairobi, resulting in a set of guidelines now being established, which other companies (regardless of sector) will be able to follow.
Umeme shares started trading at Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) last week following successful implementation of the regional inter-depository transfer mechanism (RITM) to bolster trade in cross listed stock.
One thousand Umeme shares traded on the NSE trading platform on July 31 at Ksh13 (sh390) per share. The shares are trading at sh365 per share on the local markets.
This followed the successful merger of the Uganda Securities Exchange Securities Central Depository to the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation Kenya using a Regional Inter-depository Transfer Mechanism, developed by the East African Securities Exchanges Association.
“With the integration, our shareholders have a choice of where they want to trade,” said Charles Chapman, the Umeme boss.
Joseph Kitamirike, the Uganda Securities Exchange boss, noted that liquidity of the USE has significantly improved since Umeme listed. A total 163 million shares have been traded since the counter was listed last year.
“It gives great leverage to shareholders as they are able to decide on which exchange to trade and in which currency,” said Peter Mwangi, the NSE boss.
The All Share Index closed at sh1563 from sh1561, with the Local Share Index closing at sh229.54 from sh299.51 as slowing inflation boosts activity on the markets on Tuesday.
Only 10,473 shares were traded for sh0.5m from deals on the New Vision counter and the National Insurance Corporation counters.