NAIROBI, Kenya, 23 Feb 2011- The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) was on Wednesday taking final submissions on the Demutualisation of the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE).
CMA Chief Executive Officer Stella Kilonzo said they have received good feedback from various stakeholders in the industry which would be taken to the Demutualisation Steering Committee for review.
“We will be having a stakeholders meeting in either March or April, just to give more feedback on where we have reached after the guidelines we received at the end of last year and after the exposure,” Mrs Kilonzo said.
At the end of last month, the CMA published guidelines to steer the process giving stakeholders an opportunity to appreciate the demutualisation process and submit their comments on the guidelines.
According to the Capital Markets (Demutualisation of the Nairobi Stock Exchange Limited) Guidelines 2011, the NSE is expected to make an application to the Authority to operate as a demutualised entity. The application has already been submitted.
When the NSE presents its documentation for the demutualisation, it will provide a valuation of the Exchange, authorised and paid up capital with the number of shares to be issued, and the proposed plan for the separation of the commercial and regulatory functions of the exchange.
Other key documents include the NSE’s development plan, new rules or amendments to existing rules and the most recent audited financial statements.
Mrs Kilonzo added that they hope to have at least five companies listed on the bourse this year with particular interest from the financial sector.
“Listing can either be by introduction or IPOs. We have not received any applications but we have received two issuers who have been out in the press to show their interest in listing. Last year, we did approve one that is going to be listing by introduction. We expect (the listing) to happen anytime,” she said.
Follow the authors at https://twitter.com/d2_ndegwa
