Market gears up for Crystal Telecom listing on Friday

The Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) will on Friday welcome its third domestic listing, Crystal Telecom, which is expected to start secondary market trading following its successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) last month. In an interview with Business Times yesterday, Celestin Rwabukumba, the RSE chief executive officer, said the company’s listing will be a great addition to the market in terms offering investors diversified products and bringing more liquidity to the exchange. “Judging from the IPO, the company’s shares are attractive to investors and will certainly increase trading at the exchange,” he said. Crystal Telecom, which holds 20 per cent of MTN Group telecom subsidiary, MTN Rwanda, was fully sold to the public last month when its parent firm, Crystal Ventures, offered its shares. Rwabukumba said he expects the firm’s shares to perform well at the bourse. The firm’s IPO share price was Rwf105. Prior to the listing, there have been six listed firms at the bourse, four of which are Kenyan cross-listed stocks, and two domestic firms - Bank of Kigali (BK) and Bralirwa. Finance Minister Amb Claver Gatete speaks at the launch of the firms IPO last month. (File) BK and Bralirwa have dominated trading at the bourse for years, with shareholders of the cross-listed companies often accused of not willing to trade their shares to local investors, thus hurting the liquidity of the stock market. Listing of Crystal Telecom is expected to address some of the product and liquidity challenges facing the bourse as more people will open Central Securities Depository accounts and start trading at the RSE. Moreover, being in a profitable telecom industry, Rwandans who missed out on buying Crystal Telecom shares during the IPO will be eager to buy them once they are listed to benefit from this year’s dividends. “I think it’s a good buy for anyone. I wasn’t able to buy the shares last month as it was on short notice, but I will be on the look out to buy at an affordable price once it’s listed,” said Richard Rudasingwa, a Diaspora student. business@newtimes.co.rw

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Market gears up for Crystal Telecom listing on Friday