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Ghana Pursues Kosmos, Rlg to Go Public on World’s Best Index

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The Ghana Stock Exchange, the world’s best-performing bourse this year, is pursuing companies including Kosmos Energy Ltd. (KOS) to list shares in a bid to boost trading and sustain the growth.
State-owned alcoholic beverage producer Gihoc Distilleries Co. and Rlg Communications Ltd., an Accra-based maker of computers and mobile phones, are among the companies the bourse wants to go public, Managing Director Kofi Yamoah told reporters and brokers today.
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No stocks have listed since Tullow Oil Plc (TLW), which pumps crude at the Jubilee oil field, started trading in July 2011. Kosmos, which also has a stake in Jubilee, delayed a plan to offer shares in West Africa’s second-biggest economy last year and a move to sell the government’s stake in Agricultural Development Bank Ltd. was put on hold before a December election.
“Rlg wanted to list last year, but later decided to put it on hold,” Yamoah said. “Now that the elections are behind us we will pursue them about the chances of revisiting it.”
The Ghana Stock Exchange Composite Index (GGSECI) has gained 48 percent this year. The gauge added 0.1 percent to 1770.64 by the close today.
Agricultural Development Bank may get government approval this year for its listing, while an insurance company that Yamoah declined to identify also has plans to sell shares this year, he said.
IFC Bonds
Exchange officials are also looking to bonds as a way to boost buying opportunities on the market, which has no corporate debt listings currently and only some two-, three- and five-year government securities.
The World Bank’s International Finance Corp. has obtained regulatory approval to list cedi-denominated bonds, which are targeted at financing Ghanaian projects and companies, Yamoah said. The IFC bonds will have a minimum duration of three months and will be sold in series when there are projects to finance, he said.
The IFC debt will help pull extra cedis from the local market and shore up the currency, which has depreciated 2.1 percent this year against the dollar, following a 14 percent drop in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“I expect the securities to be priced to government bills and bonds and for that matter to bring about some competition in the bills and bonds market in Ghana,” Sadiq Abubakar, a bond trader at Accra-based International Commercial Bank Ltd., said by phone. The yields on Ghana’s three-month Treasury bills eased less than one basis point to 22.98 percent at the last auction on April 12.

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