THE NATION SATURDAY,NOVEMBER 16, 2013
EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 15-11-13
61
More ICT companies for listing as NSE lists CWG Plc
T
HE Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, has assured that she would work to encourage more information and communication technology (ICT) companies to list their shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as part of efforts to deepen the Nigerian stock market. Speaking yesterday at the listing ceremony of the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc at the NSE, Johnson reiterated her commitment to policies that will encourage ICT companies to open up and list their shares for public trading. According to her, she came for the listing of CWG because the listing partly fulfilled her promise to bring ICT companies to the stock market during earlier visit to the NSE. The listing of CWG boosted the market capitalisation of the NSE by about N14 billion with the company emerging as the highest capitalised stock in the ICT sector of the Nigerian stock market. Chief Executive Officer and founder, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc, Austin Okere, enthused that the listing of the company would give the company more visibility and enable it to achieve its vision of being the number one information technology service enabler in Africa by 2015. He outlined that the company's best is yet to arrive as it has over the years built a copious amount of its turnover into annuities from deploying its own intellectual property (IP) to enable financial inclusiveness in mobility, such as the recently announced Yello Diamond Account, which will
By Taofik Salako
bring banking services to over 55 million mobile phone subscribers and the MTN XaaS product, which will provide financial services in the cloud for the over 1,000 microfinance banks and their customers on a pay as you use basis. "We have very good products and services that are enjoying very good patronage -about 12 of the large banks in Nigeria run on the Finacle Core banking Application, which CWG jointly promotes in West Africa with Infosys International, processing close to 70 per cent of all financial transactions in Nigeria and used by the likes of First Bank, UBA, Stanbic, FCMB and others," Okere said. According to him, CWG has taken advantage of its early mover status in the surge in ICT outsourcing demands to provide the service for the largest telecommunication company in Nigeria and the largest downstream company in the oil & gas sector in Nigeria. He said that CWG would be well received in the capital market as investors stood to gain significantly in the years ahead. "We are very certain that our shares would be well received by the market community, because we are in the ICT sector and information technology products and services will continue to be in high demand," Okere said. He recalled that with a seed capital of about N160,000 in 1992, the company received a valuation of N6.97 billion in 2009 from Vetiva Capital for its private placement and the issue was oversubscribed with private equity firm- Aureos Capital LLC, taking up a major
stake. CWG seemed to be on track to repeat this feat on its listing, at a target share price of N5.48 just about doubling its private placement price of N3.40 in 2009. Chief executive officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr Oscar Onyema, commended the management of CWG for working diligently over the years to build the company to the point of public listing. According to him, the NSE made a commitment to facilitate durable wealth creation by listing and nurturing the next group of African Champions and $1 billion market capitalization and companies like CWG is on the step to become an African Champion. He noted that ICT is at the bedrock of every progressive economy and has enabled cutting edge African companies compete at a global level pointing out that CWG as one of the foremost systems integration companies in Africa has blossomed into a company covering a plethora of ICT products and services. "We are quite optimistic that CWG will also do very well in the Nigerian capital market. We are proud that CWG Plc has taken a strategic step to join the prestigious club of quoted companies in Nigeria and I once again commend them for this bold step. I use this opportunity to call on other firms in the ICT sector, which are undecided on whether to list their shares on the Exchange, to make up their minds -as there are significant benefits to be derived from being a listed company. These include continuity of the company way after the founder has retired, lower cost of long term funding, visibility, enhanced branding, diversified risk of ownership, and enhanced corporate governance amongst others," Onyema said.
DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 05-10-13