[2008-10-06]  FSG raises P36 m from investors
Funeral services provider, FSG, will list on the Botswana Stock Exchange on Monday following the successful completion of its Initial Public Offer (IPO) as well as the private placement of its shares which both raised P36 million.

The company which will become the first funeral services firm to list on the bourse had availed 36 million shares at P1 per unit to be taken up by both members of the public and institutional investors.

"All applicants who applied for up to 3,000 shares got a full allocation, thereafter, those who applied for shares in excess of 3,000 shares received the number plus their pro rata amount of the remaining shares," said a statement from FSG directors.

In respect of the private placement, applications totalling 83,305,000 shares for the 28,000,000 shares on offer to qualified places were received.

Share certificates and refund cheques will be posted to all shareholders no later than October 3, 2008.

It is expected that the company's shares will be listed on the Main Board of the Botswana Stock Exchange on October 6," said the board.

The company plans to use the cash it has raised through the listing on the Stock Exchange to establish private cemeteries, pay off existing debt as well as open up subsidiaries in other sub-Saharan countries.FSG is a holding company incorporated in Botswana in 2003. It has four subsidiaries, namely, Lynn's Funeral Parlour, Kagiso Funeral Parlour, Private Cemeteries and V and N Coffin and Casket Limited, which is registered in and operates from Zambia.

The subsidiaries are collectively engaged in the provision of an entire range of funeral services through their network of funeral parlours across Botswana, the manufacturing of coffins and caskets and the development of private cemeteries.

In a prospectus for the IPO, FSG says it has a market share of approximately 65 percent of the Botswana funeral industry and holds 36 percent of existing funeral policies in Botswana.

Analysts at Motswedi Securities, who were the stockbrokers for the IPO, reckon prospects for the group and its subsidiaries are excellent. The analysts say the group expects to maintain growth in the near-term through the development of funeral parlours in under-serviced rural areas.

The group assurance business is also expected to expand through aggressive marketing in the rural areas and expansion into the Zambian market. FSG was founded by Serbian Milivoje Nikolic and his wife Lynette. Some of the major shareholders of the group, subsequent to listing, are Botswana Life Insurance Limited and Dusa Limited, which is owned by Tebelelo Seretse (chairperson), Dorcas Kgosietsile, Reetsang Willie Mokgatlhe and Julia Majaha-Jartby, all of whom are citizens of Botswana. Other prominent shareholders include Kate Maphage, Keletso Rakhudu and Tersia Stellenberg.
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