EFG-Hermes Facilitates Two IPOs from Financial Services Sector

September 5, 2020
EFG Hermes

By Dipo Olowookere

Nigeria may witness another initial public offering (IPO) next year after the last one that took place in 2019, one of the top stockbroking firms in the country, EFG-Hermes, has hinted.

While responding to enquiries from Bloomberg, Mr Ali Khalpey, who is the CEO of EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, the parent firm of EFG-Hermes Nigeria, stated that two IPOs are expected and are from the financial services sector.

According to him, one of them is from Nigeria, declining to give further details about the transaction. He said the deal was earlier billed to happen this year but the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible.

Business Post reports that in April 2019, SAHCO Plc listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) through an IPO. A month later, MTN Nigeria joined by introduction, while in July, Airtel Africa was admitted to the local exchange.

Meanwhile, Mr Khalpey has also said the company was planning to expand its operations in Nigeria by offering more products to meet the demands of clients.

He said EFG-Hermes Nigeria was looking beyond the stock market and will delve into the fixed income market despite the low yield environment.

“We’re currently looking at expanding our local offering to include fixed-income trading, a structured-products offering, as well as a local investment-banking offering,” Mr Khalpey told Bloomberg, explaining that the plan is to “cover West Africa out of our Lagos hub.”

In 2018, the Cairo-based investment bank acquired a Nigerian brokerage firm, Primera Africa Securities Limited and according to the CEO, if things work as planned, investors in Nigeria will be able to buy treasury bills, long-term government bonds and open market operations (OMO) bills of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through them.

Dipo Olowookere

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan.

Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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