On 28 December 2022, Tropigalia SA, a company with its head office in the city of Maputo, was officially admitted to listing on the Official Listed Market (MCO) of the Mozambique Stock Exchange (BVM). Its object is the wholesale and retail sale of food, home and personal use products, as well as agency and representation of foreign companies and brands, import and export, logistics and transport and other related activities.
The Public Subscription Offering (OPS) of Tropigalia SA was authorised by Banco de Moçambique, as the capital market supervisor, was publicly launched on 10 October, with the subscription period running from 24 October to 4 November.
The Special Stock Exchange Session to present the results of the operation was held on 14 November, and 2,819,203 new shares were issued, representing 1,083 investors from all provinces of the country and allowing the company to raise 334 million meticals (around 5.5 million US dollars).
After the special stock exchange session, Banco BIG, as stockbroker and financial intermediary contracted by Tropigalia SA to coordinate the operation, submitted to BVM the application for the listing of 6,519,203 nominative, preferential, non-voting, non-redeemable and book-entry shares, representing 21.4% of the company’s share capital.
After detailed analysis of the file submitted and taking into account the three groups of requirements, namely those of a legal, economic-financial and market nature, BVM, the institution that organises, manages and maintains the centralised secondary market for securities in Mozambique, authorised the listing of 6,519,203 shares representing 21.4% of the share capital of Tropigalia SA, as all the regulatory requirements for this purpose were met.
With the admission to listing of Tropigalia SA shares on the BVM, the institution now has 12 companies listed, eight on the Official Listed Market, one on the Secondary Market and three on the Third Market.
It is important to highlight that companies from the beverage industry, hydrocarbons, insurance, energy, technology and communication, as well as services, infrastructures and commerce, are listed on the BVM.
For Salim Cripton Valá, Chief Executive Officer of BVM, “the listing of Tropigalia SA’s shares is of particular importance as it is the first completely private company to engage in a public offering, as it takes place at a time of multiple external shocks (economic, COVID-19 pandemic and geo-political conflict in Eastern Europe) and as many Mozambican companies are still depressed. It is the first Public Offering that occurs after the successful IPOs of HCB SA shares and OPS of CDM SA shares, both of which occurred in the second half of 2019.”
Salim Valá, moreover, praises “the strategic vision of Tropigalia SA, in particular its PCA Adolfo Correia, for opting for the capital market to finance itself, because this market clearly has a lower cost of capital, allows greater public visibility of the company, sends a signal that it wants to adopt good corporate governance practices, facilitates the internationalisation of the company and of being open to public scrutiny.” and assures that Public Offerings are “firming up”, and gives the concrete examples of Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM) SA, Companhia Moçambicana de Hidrocarbonetos (CMH) SA, Empresa Moçambicana de Seguros (EMOSE) SA, with Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) SA, inviting entrepreneurs and investors operating in Mozambique “to make use of the financial products and instruments available in the capital market. “
BVM ends the year 2022 with its main indicators showing a positive trend, notwithstanding the still difficult economic context, as follows: (i) market capitalisation in absolute numbers is 164,196.16 million MT (equivalent to 2,545.68 million USD); (ii) market capitalisation as % of GDP is 24.03%; (iii) turnover is 15. 711.16 million MT; (iv) the liquidity index is around 9.57%; (v) 299 securities are listed; (vi) financing to the economy amounts to 271,249.63 million MT (equivalent to 4,205.43 million USD); (vii) 238 securities and 24,246 holders are registered with the Central Securities Depository (CVM). These metrics express the growing knowledge and use of the capital market and BVM by economic agents.
The Chairman of BVM launches, for 2023, the challenge to all the companies on the list of the 100 largest companies, banking and insurance institutions, Public Private Partnerships and Major Projects and Business Concessions, mobile telephone companies, companies in the mineral-energy complex, agri-business, tourism of industry and services, technology and infrastructure, and SMEs, to use the capital market and BVM “as a mechanism to popularise and democratise capital in Mozambique, and to show the world that they are and want to continue to do business with ethics, responsibility and good governance. “
The head of BVM refers, in this regard, that “during the Conference on Opportunities for the Development of the Capital Market, held at the end of October 2022, we reaffirmed the centrality of the Stock Exchange as a business centre with ethics and expressed the will to make the BVM an effective barometer of the Mozambican economy, projecting that at the end of 2026 we will have 30 listed companies and the stock market capitalisation at 35% of GDP. These are metrics that will require a lot of work, but they are within the reach of the institutions that operate in the capital market ecosystem in Mozambique”.
In closing, Salim Valá stresses what he considers an empirical evidence: companies that use the capital market and stock exchanges not only become more profitable and profitable, attract more clients, suppliers and other stakeholders, but they are also better managed, governed and are at the forefront in their industry.
