Africa-Press – Eswatini. Just shortly after being listed on the Eswatini Stock Exchange (ESE), First National Bank of Eswatini (FNBE) has become the largest market-capped company.
According to the ESE month-end report for December 2023, FNBE’s market capitalisation makes up 29.73 per cent of the ESE’s overall market capitalisation. Large-cap firms often have a reputation for producing quality goods and services, a history of consistent dividend payments and steady growth. They are often dominant players within established industries and their brand names may be familiar to a national consumer audience.
FNBE listing is by way of introduction and not by common initial public offering (IPO). An introduction is an application for listing of securities already in issue, where no marketing arrangements are required because the securities for which listing is sought are already of such an amount and so widely held that their adequate marketability when listed can be assumed.
Compliance
FNBE was issued with the ISIN code SZE000331064 and ticker symbol FNBE; however, in compliance with the Central Bank’s regulation, it shall be trading under the short name FIRN. On the first day of trading, the share price was E14.83, with an issued share capital of 133 000 000 shares, this brought the market capitalisation of FNBE to E1 972 390 000.
The listing of FNBE tremendously increased the ESE market capitalisation by 42.24 per cent overnight from E4 669 407 126 to E6 641 797 126.
Year-on-year, the market capitalisation realised a 52.03 per cent gain from E4 364 278 514 in December 2022, to E6 634 796 342 at the end of December 2023.
This has invigorated local companies’ appetite to raise capital by listing their securities on the ESE as in November, ESE witnessed the listing of Nkonyeni PreCast Limited. On equity turnover, the month of December 2023 had several trades, which might be attributable to the ESE’s automated trading environment from being manual to fully automated. Month-on-month, the value traded increased substantially by 489 per cent from E89 720 at the end of November 2023, to E528 399 at the end of December 2023.
Year-on-year, there was a 100 per cent increase in value traded from SZL0.00 in December 2022 to the current value traded of E528 399 in December 2023. Thus, the ESE ended 2023 on a high note where listing bells were ringing while they were silenced across most exchanges in Africa. The ESE continues to engage stakeholders in a bid to get more listings (both domestic and foreign).
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