Advertisement

Drug maker Cipla's shares debut on Uganda bourse

Tuesday September 18 2018
By BERNARD BUSUULWA

The shares of drug maker Cipla Quality Chemicals Limited debut on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) on Monday, marking the first entry of a pharmaceutical listing.

The stock began trading at the initial public offering (IPO) price of Ush256.5 ($0.067) per share, closing the day at Ush262 ($0.069).

The counter hit a high of Ush290 ($0.075) with the lowest trading price of Ush260 ($0.068) per share, according to USE data.

Share turnover stood at Ush1,599,000 ($418) while the trading volume was 6,100.

Three deals were recorded on the first trading day recording 50,000 bids against 1,100 outstanding offers.

Cipla's market capitalisation as at close of trading Monday was Ush956.8 billion ($250 million), though it had briefly hit the Ush1 trillion ($261.5 million) mark.

Advertisement

The IPO had a subscription rate of 98.81 per cent, after investors took up 649,384,486 shares of the 657,179,319 shares on offer, raising Ush166, 567,120,659 ($43.6 million), according to company data.

Cipla's listing ended a nearly six-year IPO drought on USE and raised the number of locally listed companies to nine.

The other eight are Uganda Clays Limited, British American Tobacco (BATU), New Vision Limited, DFCU Limited, National Insurance Corporation, Stanbic Bank Uganda, Bank of Baroda, and Umeme Limited.

“This new listing will definitely boost our trading volumes for the rest of this year. As a result, the exchange’s turnover might grow significantly and eventually deepen our profits. We have also learnt the importance of engaging issuers and their transaction advisors diligently during the process of preparing companies to list on the stockmarket after a long IPO drought,” said Paul Bwiso, USE's chief executive officer.

Cipla's entry into the stockmarket was however hit by a weak public awareness drive following the sudden death of a key media consultant for the company last month, sources claimed.

The pharmaceutical had hired Liveworks Limited, considered a novice, and WMC Africa whose manager Mr Yona Namawa died of a heart-related complication just days to the IPO launch. WMC has handled other IPOs dating back to 2005 and is considered to possesses crucial media marketing experience.

The media campaign including criticism on social media platforms is believed to have partly affected retail uptake during the offer period that ended on August 28.

“About 2,600 investors bought into Cipla Quality Chemicals Limited’s IPO and are free to buy more shares or sell their shares in the company. This listing will encourage a few Ugandan companies out there to list on the stock exchange because we have proven that it can be done,” said Mr Emmanuel Katongole, the company's executive chairman.

Advertisement