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In a statement by the NSE Board on Tuesday, the offer will remain open for 14 working days to close on Tuesday, August 12, 2014/FILE

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Historic Nairobi Exchange IPO to kick off Thursday

In a statement by the NSE Board on Tuesday, the offer will remain open for 14 working days to close on Tuesday, August 12, 2014/FILE

In a statement by the NSE Board on Tuesday, the offer will remain open for 14 working days to close on Tuesday, August 12, 2014/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 8- Investors will from Thursday July 24 get an opportunity of buying a stake at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) when the Initial Public Offer (IPO) kicks off.

In a statement by the NSE Board on Tuesday, the offer will remain open for 14 working days to close on Tuesday, August 12, 2014.

This follows last month’s approval by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) of the application of the Company to offer its shares to the public through an Initial Public Offer (IPO).

The company will subsequently list its shares on the Main Investment Market Segment (MIMS) of the NSE.

The move will offer members of the public up to 31 percent of the authorised ordinary share capital of the NSE. The board is yet to give details of the number of shares to be issued and at what price.

The IPO will be the first after the market transitioned to dematerialisation status in November 2013.

After the dematerialisation status, shareholders of all listed companies at the NSE had their share certificates converted into an electronic form. In this case all the physical certificates ceased to be used as evidence of ownership of securities.

Upon listing, the NSE will be the second African exchange after the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to have made the successful transition from a private mutual company, to a public listed company.

The NSE is currently ranked fifth biggest market in Africa by market capitalization, and it is believed demutualisation would improve this ranking, wooing more investors into the country.

Efforts to demutualise the NSE started in 2005 which lead to the formation of a year later to spearhead the process.

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This was followed by the Finance Act 2010, which contained amendments to the Capital Market Act that had section 20 amended to provide that a securities exchange licensed under the Act should be incorporated as a company limited by shares.

At the moment a mutual company formed by 18 stockbrokers owns NSE.

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