THE Capital Markets Advisory Council (CMAC) has said that East Africa’s largest media conglomerate, Nation Media Group (NMG), will start trading its shares on the Rwanda Over-The-Counter (OTC) market by the end of September 2010.

CMAC, which is Rwanda’s capital markets regulator, has already endorsed NMG’s move to trade its shares in Rwandan.  

"We approved their application last week and they were supposed to cross list on the 15th of this month but they opted to postpone to the end of the month,” said Robert Mathu, the Executive Director of CMAC.

NMG’s cross listing means that Rwandans will be given a chance to own shares in the Aga Khan-owned media giant which owns various newspapers and broadcast facilities across the region.

NMG intends to offer shares to regional investors in a sequential manner starting with Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania respectively.
However, Mathu said that the price per share will be determined by prices on the Nairobi stock Exchange (NSE) since it keeps fluctuating.

According to CMAC the media company will offer 157 million ordinary shares to Rwandans with Kshs 2.5 par value.
"Another cross listing on our capital market is an indication that companies have confidence in our market,” added Mathu.

He also stressed that the cross listing of companies helps achieve the regional integration of markets which is a major objective.

Besides NMG, more Kenyan companies have expressed interest to cross list their shares on the ROTC market before the end of the year. They include Equity Bank and Kenokobil.

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