Stock Exchange appoints financial advisers for demutualisation

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday announced the appointment of a consortium of Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and Chapel Hill Denham (CHD) as financial advisers on the proposed demutualisation of the Exchange.

Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema,  said the appointment affirms the Exchange’s commitment to achieving its demutualisation in a methodical and transparent fashion.
“This step is pivotal to a professional and successful conversion of the Exchange from a member-owned mutual organization to shareholder-owned public limited liability company that aligns with global best practices,” Onyema said.
He reiterated the commitment of the Exchange to ensuring that the interests of all members are protected in the demutualisation exercise.
He outlined that the management of the Exchange has implemented a number of initiatives to strengthen and improve governance adding that the demutualisation process will contribute to the sustenance and enhancement of governance at the Exchange.
Onyema said the NSE employed a very rigorous and extensive selection process, commencing with a request for proposal (RFP) process on March 11, 2014, which invited qualified financial consortia to submit expressions of interest (EOI).  As part of the EOI, potential financial advisors (FAs) were required to express their interests as a consortium of one international and one Nigerian investment bank, where at least one party of the consortium had participated in the demutualization of a securities exchange as lead adviser.
According to him, the qualifying consortia were sent the RFP and 13 proposals were received by deadline date. These proposals were reviewed extensively and scored based on technical and financial considerations by NSE. After a round of presentations, only three consortia progressed to the final stage which was aimed at picking the most competent consortium and extracting the best value for NSE.
Chief executive officer, Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria and Regional Head for West Africa, Mr. Michael Larbie, said the bank was delighted to be assisting the NSE with the demutualisation.

Credit: The Nation