Capital markets in Africa’s copper hotspot Zambia will grace market players with a pre-valentines gift as Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation PLC (ISIN: ZM0000000524) trades on the Lusaka Stock Exchange for the first time on 13 February. This follows 7 weeks of an initial purchase offer window with a weeks extension to the 29 January to help fill up the IPO. This is Zambia’s debut listing in 2020 with two more State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) expected this year being a special purpose vehicle (to manage the hotel business) for NAPSA the state pension fund and Zambia State Insurance Corporation (ZSIC).
According to Stock Exchange News (SENs), The total number of ordinary shares on offer was 160,000,000 at an offer price of ZMW 2.06 per share. During the offer period, 1126 successful application forms were received for 145,187,623 ZAFFICO ordinary shares, representing subscriptions for 90.74% of the total number of ordinary shares on offer. IDC, the Issuer and all the advisors to the Offer have viewed this as a successful transaction and as a reflection of the confidence that the local investor community has in the future prospects for the Company.
The current ownership structure of ZAFFICO is 62.88% Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), 33.36% Zambian Institutional Investors, 2.94% Zambian Public and ZAFFICO employees and the remaining 0.83% is held by the Ministry of Finance.
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) will look to sell down its excess 2.88% in the secondary market to address the backlog not subscribed for in the primary offer and hopefully this should boost secondary market trading.
The Kwacha Arbitrageur
