Tanzania women bank goes public

Ms Chacha

The Tanzania Women Bank (TWB) has confirmed being one of the earliest potential firms to list on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange’s (DSE) Enterprise Growth Market (EGM).
 

TWB Executive Director Margreth Chacha said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that listing is a milestone move to avail Tanzanians with an opportunity to own shares of the steadily growing bank. Tanzania's second bourse segment, EGM, is expected to start before the end of the year.

Early this week, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) issued the Tanzania Women Bank (TWB) with a new banking licence in the name of Tanzania Women’s Bank Public Limited Company.

“This is to inform the general public that TWB Limited changed its legal status from a Private Limited Company to a Public Limited Company,” stated the central bank.

According to Ms Chacha, after securing permission from the BoT, the next stage will be to prepare the prospectus as required by the Capital Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA). 

In the meantime, after acquiring 2bn/- from the government to boost its capital, the bank plans to open new branches to widen its services to potential customers.

Ms Chacha said the bank will also direct its effort to upcountry regions, especially in training small scale entrepreneurs on financial literacy.  

The DSE chief Executive officer, Mr Gabriel Kitua, said recently that three more companies were expected to list on the bourse this fiscal year, bringing to nearly 20 the number of listed firms.

“Obviously, the increased number of listed companies will make the bourse more active and one of the fastest growing market in the region despite being small,” he said. 

He said DSE has already received prospectus of the London-listed Richland Resources, the parent company of TanzaniteOne, planning to offload a 20 percent stake during a cross-listing and initial public offering on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.

Mr Kitua added that the bourse, forecast strong interest from investors on Richland's shares. “There is a growing demand for new IPOs in the country. If investors will be satisfied by the profitability of the company, it will not prevent the firm’s IPO to oversubscribe,” he said.

The gas company is expected to issue new shares despite being listed in the London based Stock Exchange in order to mobilise funds for the exploration of gas in the southern Tanzania. 

The total market capitalisation has rose to 12.80tri/-, while domestic market capitalisation is 2.56tri/- as at end of last week. Currently, there are 11 listed domestic companies and six cross listed firms.

Source: The Daily News,http://www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Sebastian Mrindoko

Share on Google Plus

About Unknown

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.