The Federal Government will eventually sell its shares in privatised firms through Initial Public Offering, the Bureau of Public Enterprises has said.
The Director-General, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said this when he visited the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
According to him, the plan is part of the government’s efforts to grow and increase the depth of the capital market.
On the power sector, he said, “It is also envisaged that in the next few years, as the Nigerian electricity supply sector moves into the hands of private sector owners and matures, the 17 successor companies will come for listing.
“This is because the remaining government’s shareholdings in the distribution companies that are currently being privatised through core investor sale strategy will be divested through the Exchange. The generation companies will come by differed public offers later.”
The director-general said the expectation was the same for all the core investor sales, but that the process was delayed by the downturn in the economy, which made the turnaround of the companies to be protracted.
Dikki, however, said investors had now improved the performances of the partially or fully privatised companies and achieved acceptable financial records to make the firms go public, adding that some of them were being assessed for public offering.
“So, there is hope that in the near future, many of the companies like Eleme Petrochemicals, Sahcol, Transcorp Hilton, Nicon Luxury, Nigerdock, etc will be ready for listing,” he said.
Dikki said for many of the privatised enterprises, the lock-in period of five years would soon expire without them being ready to come to the market, adding, “The core investors were committed in the Share Purchase Agreements to do differed public offers at a later date when the fortunes of the company improved.”
While assuring the management of the NSE and stockbrokers of the continued support of the BPE, the DG told them that the government recognised the role of the capital market in providing long-term funding to drive investments in the transport sector.
Before ringing the closing bell for trading activities for the day, Dikki commended the management of the NSE for the “tremendous progress” made since his days as a trader on the Exchange.
The event was attended by the Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, and officials of both organisations.