Maravi

Finance Bank to list on LuSE next year

Finance Bank to list on LuSE next year
Written by Kabanda Chulu
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:51:28 PM

FINANCE Bank managing director Dick King has said the bank will list its shares on the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) by end of 2010.

Recently, some industry and financial experts noted that Finance Bank Zambia was experiencing liquidity difficulties as a result of its partnership with Credit Suisse, which had been highly affected by the global financial crisis, hence suspending the issuance of a pre-listing bond of K200 billion and formal listing of shares on the LuSE.

However, King said plans to list and raise a bond were still in place but it all depended on the aspect of right timing.

“As you are well aware, the world financial markets have imploded behind the ‘toxic debt’ impact to the banks and financial institutions globally and this means that we will have to incur the same costs to raise a bond and run our Initial Public Offer (IPO) but with the risk of not attracting investors to either of these capital raising processes due to their own (prospective investors) balance sheet challenges and the disappearance of the Capital Market players,” King said. “My best interpretation under these challenging circumstances suggests the listing will only take place toward the middle or end of 2010, it really depends on the ‘signals’ we are getting from key advisors and players in this space.”

He said Finance Bank was in regular discussion with all its shareholders, including Credit Suisse, to build views, expectations and the case for the prop- osed bond programme and then the IPO.

“I am pleased to inform you that our plans to list and raise a bond are still in place, it is really just a question of the ‘right timing’ that is at issue and it may well be that we revise the nature and quantum of the bond programme but the intent to list and the use of a convertible note within our bond programme remains our commitment to the Zambian market,” said King.

“Our lead arranger will guide us on how best to accomplish our desire for a dual listing, but we are confident that this will still be the most likely event even given the state of the current market.”

Last year, Credit Suisse acquired 40 per cent shareholding in Finance Bank and plans were underway to issue a pre-listing bond worth K200 billion while the formal listing on LuSE was earmarked for end of 2008, but the global credit crunch forced the bank to suspend the project.

Labels: FINANCE BANK, LUSE

posted by MrK @ 2:53 PM