Malawi Stock Exchange lists new NBS Bank shares
The Malawi Stock Exchange on Monday listed new shares for NBS Bank that were brought on the market under a share rights issues.
The bank belongs to Nico Holdings Limited but they had to bring in strategic partners, International Finance Corporation a member of theWorld Bank group.
As it is, Nico Holdings now has 50.1 percent shares in NBS Bank with the number of its listed stocks appreciating from around 100 million shares to over 700 million shares.
During the listing, Lead Advisor CDH chief executive Misheck Esau highlighted that NBS Bank now has 31 percent of issued share capital held by the public at the stock market after completion of the rights issue.
The percentage held by the public in NBS is above 25 percent set as the minimum number of shares supposed to be in public hands as per listing regulations.
Malawi Stock Exchange operations chief John Kamanga announced that the shares have provided a partial solution to the liquidity challenges which have haunted the market for sometime.
The market’s chief executive Symon Msefula said he was impressed that the public has managed to invest in the bank shares although Malawi is facing economic challenges.
He said this was witnessed by raising of capital worth over K900 million through the new shares and after the listing 15,000 NBS Bank sold at K10 each.
NBS Bank board chairperson Felix Mlusu, who is also managing director for Nico Holdings Limited, the bank’s parent company, said:“We are a long term investor. We have confidence in the economy. The [Malawi’s] economy is in a crisis, but we can only remain hopeful that going forward, things will change. We will come out of this crisis…it’s just a question of when.”
He described NBS a popural banking brand.