Access bank has extended its Initial Public Offer (IPO) period by two weeks.
The bank has extended the closing period for the offer from November 11, 2016 to November 25, 2016.
A statement from the bank on the extension said, “The Securities and Exchange Commission has granted the Bank an extension to its Initial Public Offer (IPO) period.”
The offer seeks to raise 104 million cedis to meet the bank’s increased operational expenditure.
It is unclear what reasons accounted for the extension of the offer period but some industry watchers believe the general slow performance of the stock market may have affected the performance of the offer.
Access bank becomes the first Nigerian Bank to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange if its IPO is successful.
The move also comes after calls by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for multinationals to list on the domestic bourse and improve Ghana’s capital market.
Some stock market analysts earlier predicted that more companies are likely to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange to meet the recapitalization requirement by the Bank of Ghana.
An Associate, Equity Trading at UMB Capital, Kofi Kyei says one of the influences of Access bank’s listing will involve attracting other commercial banks to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange to meet the new regulatory requirement for commercial banks.
“The bank of Ghana’s decision to review the minimum capital requirement for banks from the 120 million to 500 million cedis, we expect a lot of such transactions not only the floating of shares but also mergers and acquisitions just to keep the banks within the regulatory requirements,” he stated.
Access bank’s 4 cedis per share price will be the third highest among the banks listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) if its bid to list is successful.
The highest is Standard Chartered bank at 14 cedis 10 pesewas followed by Ecobank Ghana at 6 cedis 82 pesewas.
Responding to whether or not the 4 cedis share price is on the high side, a stock analyst, Nana Agyeman Gyamfi described the price as fair though he admitted that the banking stocks have generally not been performing well.
“In my view, looking at their fundamentals, the 4 cedi share price is not that bad and that compares favourably with other banks… I will say probably looking at the bank’s performance, the 4 cedis is a fair price for investors,” he opined.
Source: citibusinessnews
