Energy Bank to push ahead with Ghana’s second-biggest IPO

Energy Bank Ghana Ltd. plans to sell 262 million new shares to raise 340 million cedis ($68 million) in the country’s second-largest initial public offering.
The Accra-based lender will offer the new securities at 1.3 cedis each and also list 60 million existing shares as part of the transaction, Isaac Shedowa, an executive director of the bank, said by phone, confirming pricing details reported earlier by Bloomberg News.
The offer will run for the next month, he said.
Energy Bank, which is owned by Nigerian conglomerate Energy Group, is among a number of lenders seeking to raise their capital levels to meet a year-end deadline set by Ghana’s regulator.
The central bank last year increased paid-up capital levels more than threefold to 400 million cedis, spurring a series of share sales and mergers in the industry.
At least 19 of the nation’s 34 banks are set to meet the target, Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison said last week.
If successful, the IPO would be the biggest on the Ghana Stock Exchange after the local unit of MTN Group Ltd. raised 1.1 billion cedis in July.
“We believe we’ll be oversubscribed because there are strategic investors who have promised to invest,” Shedowa said. If not, “unsubscribed shares will be taken by existing shareholders,” he said.