Oragroup Raises $98 Million in West Africa Bourse’s Biggest IPO

Togolese lender Oragroup SA raised 56.9 billion CFA francs ($98 million) in a fully subscribed initial public offering that was the largest yet for West Africa’s regional exchange.

The bank sold 7.8 million existing shares and issued 6.1 million new securities at 4,100 francs each from Oct. 29 to Nov. 22, the Lome-based lender said in a statement. The stock will be listed on the Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan, in the first quarter of 2019, it said.

Oragroup, whose shareholders including pan-African investor Emerging Capital Partners, plans to use the funds raised to expand its businesses in the 12 countries it operates in.

Regional lenders from NSIA Group to the local unit of Ecobank Transnational Inc. have sold shares and listed on the BRVM over the past two years as the eight-member West African Economic and Monetary Union achieved annual economic growth of more than 6 percent for six years through 2017. The previous biggest share sale was for the Ecobank unit, which raised 45 billion francs last year. Source: Bloomberg