Don't Miss


Home   >   Market - Finance   >   NSE appoints 14 firms as designated advisors for ASeM

NSE appoints 14 firms as designated advisors for ASeM

By on April 8, 2013

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has announced the selection of 14 companies as Designated Advisors, DAs, for soon to be launched Alternative Securities Market, ASeM.

Mid-sized and other upstart companies are expected to access the market through ASeM after its introduction.

The companies appointed include; BGL Securities, UBA Stockbrokers, Marina Securities, FSDH Securities, Capital Asset, EDC Securities, and CardinalStone Securities.

Others are Fidelity Securities, Partnership Investment, Investment One, Primera Africa, and Magnartis Finance & Investment, ARM Securities and Morgan Capital Securities.

At the unveiling of the qualified designated advisors, the NSE Executive Director, Market Operations, Mr. Ade Bajomo, said that the 14 companies were selected after rigorous screening of the 21 applications that was received.

He revealed that the DAs would be available to provide professional advisory services to the mid-size companies before and after their listing.

It would be recalled that the earlier disclosed plan to overhaul its second-tier market to an Alternative Securities Market (ASeM), in order to drive listing by upstart companies.

The ASeM will open a new window of opportunity for emerging companies with high potential for growth in Nigeria to access the capital market under less stringent rules and requirements to raise long term, low cost capital.

Commenting, the Executive Director, Business Development of The NSE, Mr Haruna Jalo-Waziri, had stated that “The Nigerian Stock Exchange is a staunch believer in the critical role of emerging enterprises in a developing economy and as such we have taken the bold step of providing a platform for sustainable growth and development of these companies. The ASeM Board will allow issuers; especially indigenous companies the opportunity to inject relatively low cost and long term capital into their businesses through flexible rules that recognize their growth potential rather than the size of operation.”

Shedding light on the possibility of most of the companies expected on the ASeM board being without any professional guidance and therefore being unable to meet the post listing requirements, Mrs Taba Peterside, GM, Listings Sales and Retention, NSE said “Designated Advisers (DA) will be required for all companies listed on the ASeM Board of the Exchange to ensure compliance with all the requirements and obligations of the Alternative Securities Market. The DAs will provide professional resources to qualifying companies for guidance and advice on securities-related matters”.

Information gathered from within The Exchange revealed that The NSE has already completed the selection process for the DAs and are at the verge of announcing the successful applicants in few days ahead of the official launch of the ASeM Board slated for later this month.

( Vanguard )