Ghana Stock Exchange to increase its capitalization

Accra, Nov. 10, GNA- Activities on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) are set to receive a boost in the coming weeks and will catapult the Exchange's total market capitalization to over 700 billion cedis.

This is in regard of the proposed listing of Clydestone Ghana Limited and Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) and later, the enlarged business of Anglo-Ashanti next year, sources close to the GSE told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Business Desk in Accra on Monday. The GSE total market capitalization to date is fixed at 11.054 billion cedis, about 1.2 billion dollars and is expected to rise with the new additions.

The source said that Clydestone, a local IT company would be provisionally listed on Wednesday, November 12, while BOPP would list before the year runs out.

This would bring the total companies on the Exchange to 28, the highest since it started operations in November 1990.

The source said the provisional listing of Clydestone would pave the way for other companies on the Ghanaian market to come onto the Exchange, adding that, "Clydestone will in the next six months float shares and become full fledged members of the Exchange.

"To us on the Exchange, it is a remarkable event which might signal to Ghanaian business community that the Ghana Stock Exchange is not only there for the large multinational companies. Other small to medium sized companies can also use the Exchange to raise appropriate capital for their operations."

Listing on the GSE has been rather few and far in between with complaints that government was not keen on divesting companies through the Exchange; the recent ones being the divesting of government holdings in Coca Cola Company and the Barclays Bank.

It said market capitalization on the GSE would jump significantly when the proposed merger between Ashanti Goldfields Company and Anglogold of South Africa is completed.

"The Stock Exchange here will benefit immensely when the new enlarged company comes onto the floor. The fact is that the introduction of Anglogold alone will raise the market capitalization seven fold as the market capitalization of the combined entity will be fixed at 10 billion dollars, making the Ghana Stock Exchange one of the few most capitalized on the continent.

"Indeed it is the best performing Exchange yet in Africa and the world this year, and we look forward to very exciting times ahead," the source added.

The introduction of the new business on the GSE, the source said it will bring more attention to the Exchange and would be looked at by major foreign investors as Ashanti did when it first listed.