Tanzanians have been granted an opportunity to own shares in East Africa’s biggest media house after the country’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) approved a proposal by the Nation Media Group (NMG) to cross list on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE).

Cross-listing introduces shares of a listed company in a particular country on another stock exchange, which means that NMG is not seeking to raise any new capital but only providing an opportunity to its existing and potential investors to trade their shares on the DSE.

The DSE chief executive officer, Gabriel Kitua, said in Dar es Salaam on Monday last week that authorities approved the proposal recently.

"The proposal has been approved by the authorities - what remains is for the company to decide when to go live at the DSE,” Kitua told journalists at a seminar, organized by the stock market.

The approval comes at a time the company’s shares started trading on the Rwanda Over-The-Counter (OTC) bourse last month. In October, the media conglomerate cross-listed its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).

In Rwanda, the company offered 157,118,572 ordinary shares to the official list of the ROTC with a combined market capitalization of $325 million following approval by the market regulator, Capital Markets Authority (CMAC).

"The company has benefited from listing on the Nairobi Stock Exchange in many ways over the years. Of the many performing blue chip companies listed on the bourse, NMG shares are very well regarded and treasured because of our consistent performance since 1973 when the shares were first listed on the NSE,” NMG’s Chairman Wilfred Kiboro said during the Kigali cross listing. .

NMG reported a net income of Ksh597.5 million or Rwf4.3 billion for the first six months of 2010. The company’s Newspaper Division also grew by 20 percent increase in advertisement revenues and a 14 percent in total revenues while operating profit soared to 36 percent.

Kiboro added that the cross-listing on the ROTC market was mainly to enhance the profile of the company in Rwanda, enable Rwandan investors share in NMG’s vision as shareholders of the company, and also recognize the emergence of capital markets growth in Rwanda as evidenced by the growth parameters at the ROTC Market.

Ends