Attempts by the Agricultural Development Bank (adb) to list on the domestic bourse may take a little longer than expected as the bank is yet to get government’s approval.
The bank has already missed two deadlines it set to list on Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
The Ministry of Finance is engaging with officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for approval to list the bank.
Government’s approval is necessary because it owns majority of shares (about 52 percent of shares) with the Bank of Ghana owning the remaining 48 percent.
The head of Marketing and Communications at ADB, Solomon Adu Atefoe said he was hopeful government will subsequently approve the bank’s listing.
“We were supposed to have listed on April 25th as was announced to the public but we sought an extension to today (May 5) because we are finalizing the arrangement with the major shareholders which happen to be the government and the Bank of Ghana. We need to seek clearance from the government before the listing can take place and we are currently engaging them, our financial advisors are actually engaging government to ensure that that is done,” he said.
The Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) in December 2015 launched the Initial Public Offer (IPO) after several failed attempts to launch the offer.
The bank at the time stated that it expected to raise about 390 million cedis.
It however extended the deadline from February to March when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved an additional 100 million cedis for the IPO.
According to Mr. Atefoe, the extension was favourable as it allowed for more retail purchases of the shares.
He added that the IPO was oversubscribed by over nine percent.
“The amount the IPO sought to raise was oversubscribed by over nine percent; we sought to raise about 390 million cedis but we got over 430 million cedis. The extension period really worked as we got a lot of participation and interest across board; a lot of individuals as well as companies. So the extension was very good for us,” he noted.
Solomon Adu Atefoe said proceeds from the IPO will be used to pay off the BoG’s shares, finance the expansion of branches of the bank as well as enhance IT infrastructure.
By: Pius Amihere Eduku
