Africa Gets New Stock Market
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Ethiopia is opening a stock exchange after a five-decade gap, in its latest step to lure investors to a nation that’s struggling to control regional strife as it recovers from a civil war.
Ethiopia Investment Holdings, which controls 40 state-run companies, is selling shares in Ethio Telecom to raise as much as 30 billion birr ($234 million) in an initial public offering. The company’s debut, along with the government’s plan to list other firms, will herald the start of the new bourse, according to Tilahun Kassahun, chief executive officer of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, which opens on Friday.
Africa’s most-populous nation after Nigeria also changed rules so that investments in the capital market are “treated favorably” to allow investors repatriate funds easily, Tilahun said in an interview.
Ethiopia had a stock market for 14 years until 1974, when Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by the nation’s military and share trading abolished.
The new institution aims to list as many as 50 companies in the next five years, Tilahun said. Some will join the bourse via a so-called listing by introduction — which does not involve an IPO — though how many is not yet clear.
The drive to attract investors began after Abiy’s government and dissident Tigrayan fighters signed the 2022 pact to end the two-year conflict. Still, Abiy has struggled to contain ethnic tensions in Ethiopia’s Oromia and Amhara regions, where government soldiers and regional militias clash frequently. #Bloomberg
#ESX
#StockMarket
#ECMA
@PatternFin
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Ethiopia is opening a stock exchange after a five-decade gap, in its latest step to lure investors to a nation that’s struggling to control regional strife as it recovers from a civil war.
Ethiopia Investment Holdings, which controls 40 state-run companies, is selling shares in Ethio Telecom to raise as much as 30 billion birr ($234 million) in an initial public offering. The company’s debut, along with the government’s plan to list other firms, will herald the start of the new bourse, according to Tilahun Kassahun, chief executive officer of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, which opens on Friday.
Africa’s most-populous nation after Nigeria also changed rules so that investments in the capital market are “treated favorably” to allow investors repatriate funds easily, Tilahun said in an interview.
Ethiopia had a stock market for 14 years until 1974, when Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by the nation’s military and share trading abolished.
The new institution aims to list as many as 50 companies in the next five years, Tilahun said. Some will join the bourse via a so-called listing by introduction — which does not involve an IPO — though how many is not yet clear.
The drive to attract investors began after Abiy’s government and dissident Tigrayan fighters signed the 2022 pact to end the two-year conflict. Still, Abiy has struggled to contain ethnic tensions in Ethiopia’s Oromia and Amhara regions, where government soldiers and regional militias clash frequently. #Bloomberg
#ESX
#StockMarket
#ECMA
@PatternFin