Ghana’s Agricultural Bank Said to Delay IPO on Labor Issues
- By: Moses Mozart Dzawu | Bloomberg
- Jun 23, 2015
- 2 min read
Ghana’s Agricultural Development Bank postponed its initial public offering to allow time for talks with labor-union officials, according to a person familiar with the process.
The ADB’s board of directors plans to announce a decision on Wednesday, said the person, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. Labor Minister Haruna Iddrisu and Stephen Kpordzih, executive director of the bank, declined to comment on Monday. The share sale, which was supposed to take place on Tuesday, had been previously delayed in 2012.
ADB, which funds farmers, processors and traders, is seeking to raise about 400 million cedi ($91 million) through the IPO, which will also facilitate the central bank’s exit as a 48 percent shareholder in the lender. The listing, which would have been the 36th on the Ghana Stock Exchange, was postponed because of protests by workers demanding more information about the offer.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to stop the listing unless the right thing is done,” Mark Imoro, chairman of the workers’ group representing senior ADB staff, said by phone on June 10. “We want to make input into the IPO -- government shares cannot be diluted down just like that. ADB is a national asset.”
Employees are demanding Kpordzih step aside to allow for an investigation into the activities of management and the board. It also wants an independent third party to partner the Bank of Ghana in the investigations, Imoro said.
The central bank is pushing for the IPO as it wants to avoid any potential conflicts of interest by owning shares in a lender, Bank of Ghana Governor Kofi Wampah said in an interview last month.
“It helps the stock exchange to grow and allows Ghanaians to hold shares in this bank,” he said. “It is very important to carry along all stakeholders, that is why it is important to have a dialogue with the staff.”
The offer price was decreased to 2.65 cedis a share from 3 cedis, a person familiar with the transaction, who isn’t authorized to speak publicly, said on June 18.
The bank is 52 percent owned by the government while the Financial Investment Trust via the Bank of Ghana holds the rest.
Source: Bloomberg.com
By: Moses Mozart Dzawu
