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EAC Regional: Press Releases: KCB Shares Begin Trading at USE |
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Tuesday, 11 November 2008 |
11 November 2008 --- KCB shares begin trading on Uganda Security Exchange on November 11, 2008 after the bank received an approval from the Ugandan authorities to cross list its 2,217,777,777 shares at a price to be determined by the market.
Ringing the bell to mark the start of trading in the new shares, KCB Group Chairman Peter W. Muthoka thanked the Uganda Securities Exchange, the Capital Markets Authority and the Bank of Uganda for their support throughout the approval process.
He said KCB Board had been motivated by the conviction that there is good potential in the Ugandan market and that the leadership was keen to see the emergence of regional institutions that would support and give credibility to the East African economic integration
“As our drive towards regional and continental expansion gains momentum, so has our desire to make KCB shares accessible to more stakeholders across the region. It is, therefore, timely and ideal that as our business settles down and begins to perform in this market that we also empower investors here to stake a claim to the ownership of KCB,” he said.
Within the past one year, the bank has established three operational branches in Uganda with an additional four branches planned for opening at the end of this month bringing them to seven before the end of the year. The Board has also approved works on four more branches.
“Alongside that dream to set up a viable business in Uganda, we felt the urgent need to give East Africans the opportunity to share in the success of our business, mainly because we see KCB as the bank with the heritage and capacity to belong to and appeal to the people of this region. Today’s ceremony is a culmination of that dream to bring East Africa’s largest commercial bank to East African investors,” said Mr. Muthoka.
Strong Fundamentals The KCB shares have over the past seven years performed consistently well, winning the Africa Investor Series Award for the Best Performing Company among Africa’s top 40 companies in 2007. In the course of this year, the shares achieved a milestone level in the market capitalisation, hitting over USD2bn mark owing to increased interest from the market and enhances stock value as a result of good business performance.
In spite of the raging bear in global stock markets, future prospects for KCB shares look good in view of our strong fundamentals, ongoing impressive financial performance and the expected change of fortunes in the world’s financial markets.
“We bring to this market a very good stock backed by strong business fundamentals. In our recently released third quarter results, the KCB Group reported a 64% increase in profitability to about UGX120bn and our assets of over UGX4.3trn make our business the largest by assets in the region. I encourage investors in this market to take advantage of this opportunity to own a piece of East Africa’s largest indigenous commercial bank,” he said.
The bank’s cross-listing programme had been designed to ensure prospective investors have an easy and convenient way of buying KCB shares from the comfort of their offices without the rigors and risks of undertaking cross-border transactions. To this effect, the bank plans to have in place a register of KCB shares available to buyers on the ground with a fully-fledged and recognised registrar to handle administrative requirements.
The bank is implementing the cross-listing simultaneously in the Uganda Securities Exchange and the Dar-es-Salaam Stock Exchange, which the chairman says is advancing well. The bank is also considering a similar arrangement for the Kigali Stock Exchange to tap into the investment potential in the Rwanda market when it finally enters that market later this year.
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