THE Capital Markets Advisory Council (CMAC) is expecting an Initial Public Offering (IPO) this year, after engaging some potential companies which may list their shares on the Rwandan bourse. 

Government is set to float, on the Rwanda Over The Counter (ROTC) market shares, it owns in some of its parastatals.

"Decisions have been made by the boards of those companies. But it is a question of when because there are certain technical things that must be agreed upon between the shareholders (government and the institutions identified),” Robert Mathu, Executive Director, CMAC told The New Times in an exclusive interview.

However, Mathu could not divulge the details of the companies saying, "They (companies) prefer going public after certain approvals have been made.”

This means that Rwanda could possibly have two companies listed on its bourse before the year ends, following Kenya Commercial Bank’s (KCB) assurance that its shares will be cross listed in the country this year.

"That one is given. It would have come last year,” Mathu said of KCB’s listing.

KCB is cross listed in Uganda and Tanzania. When the decision to cross list in the region was made two years ago, Rwanda was not in the picture.

"When they went to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) all the shareholders approved the cross listing but since Rwanda was not mentioned, they had to go back to the AGM,” Mathu said.

Since its launch in March last year, CMAC has listed three treasury bonds and one corporate bond, which have all attracted Rwf634 million in 50 transactions on the secondary market. Rwf15.25 billion was also generated on the primary market.

Management said that they have managed to put up trading facilities in place, admitted seven members (brokerage firms) and carried out awareness campaign where 2,500 people were trained.

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