[2007-06-13]  Blue Mulls Over Dual Country Listin
Pan African micro-financier Blue Financial Services is planning a dual listing on the Zambian and Botswana stock exchanges before the end of the year. This was disclosed on Friday by Blue Financial Services CEO Dave van Niekerk after the bank received R100 million (about P87 million) from international banking group Standard Chartered Bank to bolster its loan book.

Van Niekerk said the dual listing, which is scheduled for August in Botswana and September in Zambia, would give investors in the two southern African countries an opportunity to acquire shares in the mass market lender, which is listed on the JSE's alternative exchange, AltX.

This would also help lift the group's profile in the Zambian and Botswana markets, where it has a combined loan book of R80 million (about P69.6 million), he said after a media tour of the company's regional operations.

Blue partners with larger employers and governments to offer lower-level employees in those organisations access to credit, including salary advances, home improvement loans, home loans and insurance.

The company conducts 80 percent of its business in South Africa but operates in five other countries in Africa, including Zambia and Botswana, where it controls 40 percent and 60 percent of the mass credit markets respectively.

Blue, which listed on AltX last October, plans to move to the main board of the JSE before the end of this year, subject to shareholder approval. Van Niekerk said the company's shareholders, including US-based AIG Capital Partners, financial services companies Stanlib and Investec, and state-owned asset manager the Public Investment Corporation, would be asked to sanction the plans next month.

Moving Blue to the main board of the JSE would enhance the company's stock value, he said. The share price closed at R3.40 (about P2.95) on Friday, lifting its market capitalisation to R1.2 billion (about P1.01 billion) from R330 million (about P287.1 million) at listing eight months ago. The group, which was the brainchild of Van Niekerk and Riaan Swart, is also planning to sell a 25 percent stake in its South African operating company to black investors. Van Niekerk said several potential suitors had been in talks with Blue about the R50 million (about P43 million) black empowerment deal, and these had been scaled down to two.

The company, which has 108 branches in southern Africa, plans to spend R200 million (about P174 million) on acquisitions on the continent this year.

Van Niekerk said talks were under way with two possible takeover targets, which he would not name.
Blue has secured a R100 million (about P87 million) term loan from Standard Chartered Bank, through its local arm, to help fund its R220 million (about P191 million) loan book.

Van Niekerk said the bank had also entered into a transactional banking arrangement with Blue in all the countries it operated in, and planned to fund deals involving Blue in those markets.

"This deal makes more funds available for lending at attractive rates to our clients. Although Standard Chartered Bank is our banker in African countries such as Botswana, Tanzania and Uganda, we have invited the bank to consider taking the bulk of our transactional banking," Van Niekerk said.

Copyright © 2007
Source: Copyright © 2007 Mmegi