TANZANIANS and foreign investors’ appetite for
share sale of rapid growing firms will soon be tested again as Maxcom Africa,
an ICT integration company, nears its landmark initial public offering.
Maxcom
Africa Executive Director, Juma Rajabu said at a meeting with editors and senior
reporters from mainstream media in Dar es Salaam over the weekend that they
were in final stages of preparations for the initial public offering in line
with a mandatory requirement for telecommunications companies to sell at least
a 25 per cent stake on the Dar es Salaam exchange to boost domestic ownership.
He however declined to provide further details saying they were
subject to Capital Market and Security Agency (CMSA) approval.
The IPO is expected to test again domestic
and foreign investors’ appetite for IPOs after they were enticed by share sell
of Vodacom Tanzania, a leading telecommunication company in Tanzania which
offloaded 25 per cent shares through IPO in March and listed on the Dar es
Salaam Stock Exchange last week. Vodacom placed 560 million shares at 850/-
each in Tanzania’s biggest initial public offering (IPO), raising 476bn/- ($213
million).
Maxcom Africa PLC is an ICT integration firm owned by native
Tanzanians with extensive operations in East African Community (EAC) member
states of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
It provides automated fare collection system for public
transport such as Dar es Salaam’s Bus Rapid Transit and Kigongo Busisi Ferry in
Sengerama, Mwanza, and electronic health services in terms of mobile money and
card payment system for hospitals including Muhimbili National Hospital and
Bugando referral hospital.
Maxcom also provides utility and service payments where
customers pay electricity and water bills through their agents or mobile
telephones. It acquired Public Listed Company status in June in preparations to
float its shares at the stock market.
The chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, Prof Samwel
Wangwe, said in June that Maxcom had filed its prospectus to the Capital
Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA) and was waiting for approval from the
authority.
He said the listing at the stock market would enable the company
operate in compliance with the country’s laws and regulations in line with the
Electronic and Postal Communication Act of 2010 and the Finance Act 2016, which
require communication operators to offload 25 per cent of their shares to the
public.
0 comments:
Post a Comment