Kenya's Equity could consider overseas listing -CEO

ADDIS ABABA | Wed May 9, 2012 11:22am EDT
 

May 9 (Reuters) - Kenya's Equity Bank could consider an overseas listing as rapid expansion puts it in danger of outgrowing its home stock market, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
With operations in five east African countries and a knack for rolling out banking services targeted at the lower end of the market, Equity has become one of Nairobi's most actively traded stocks and a darling of foreign investors.

"When Equity raises more money, that will be a major issue that has to be dealt with: Is the market still big enough for any additional capitalisation?" Chief Executive James Mwangi told Reuters on the sidelines of an event ahead of the World Economic Forum on Africa, which runs this week in Ethiopia.
"That would be the time to think about London, South Africa or New York," he said.
Africa's small but fast-growing companies are increasingly looking to do dual listings, particularly in London, to raise their profile among foreign investors.
They are also keen to escape the constraints of their home markets. Despite the surging economic growth, stock markets across frontier Africa remain relatively illiquid.
Equity Bank and the region's biggest telecoms firm Safaricom are typically the most traded stocks on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and can account for the vast majority of volume in some sessions.
In what some analysts have said will be a watershed moment for African equities, Nigerian cement giant Dangote Cement has said it plans to list its global depositary receipts in London.

(Reporting by David Dolan; additional reporting by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; editing by David Clarke)