African capital markets show significant decline in 2016 – PwC report

The African Equity Capital Markets (ECM), broke a streak of three successive years of growth, recording a decline in overall ECM activity of 28 per cent from 2015 in the number of transactions and 33 per cent from 2015 in terms of capital raised, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report has said.

The Africa Capital Markets Watch report released today, said 2016 marked a challenging year for African equity markets in the wake of lower economic growth and political upheaval around the globe, largely as a result of the US elections cycle and the Brexit vote, the report observed.

“Many African economies, in particular those dependent on resources suffered in a low growth environment, significantly reducing ECM activity, and a continued lack of clarity around foreign exchange risk in Nigeria further discouraged foreign investment,” Darrell McGraw, PwC Capital Markets Partner was quoted as saying in the report.

“Although overall ECM activity decreased in 2016 in terms of both transaction volume and value as compared to 2015, there was a significant increase in ECM activity, particularly IPOs, in the second half of the year, indicating the cautious optimism of issuers and investors as the year progressed,” he further adds.

Since 2012, there has been 450 African ECM transactions raising a total of $44.9 billion, up eight per cent in terms of capital raised over the previous five year period 2011-2015, it noted.

The report analysed equity and debt capital markets transactions that took place between 2012 and 2016 on exchanges throughout Africa, as well as transactions by African companies on international exchanges.

By Pamela Ofori-Boateng

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