Access Bank Ghana to Start $26 Million Share Sale this Week
Access Bank Plc’s Ghanaian unit will begin an initial public offering on Oct. 19 as it seeks to raise funds to expand the financial firm’s operations.
Access Bank Ghana Ltd. will aim to raise a minimum of 104 million cedis ($26 million). It will price the shares at 4 cedis each and they’ll trade on the Ghana Stock Exchange after the IPO closes on Nov. 11, the bank said in an e-mailed statement by Stratcomm Africa Ltd.
“There is the need to grow capacity to take advantage of the opportunities that have emerged from running successful operations in Ghana so far,” Access Bank Ghana Managing Director Dolapo Ogundimu said in the statement.
The IPO represents about a 19 percent stake of the local unit, Jacob Aidoo, head of issuers at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Ghana, said on Oct. 6.
“The market has been waiting for an IPO in a while,” Randy Mensah, head of equity trading at Ecobank Capital Ltd., said by phone from the capital, Accra, on Monday. “It’s going to create more options. It should create more liquidity as well going forward.”
Access Bank will become the 36th company to list on the Accra bourse after Mega Africa Capital Ltd. in 2014. African Alliance Securities Ltd. and Chapel Hill Denham Securities Ltd. are acting as lead managers and sponsoring brokers for the sale, according to the statement.
