African bourses tap big funds

JOHANNESBURG – African stock exchanges hope to team up to lure more foreign investors and compete with the world’s established bourses, officials said yesterday.

Members of the African Stock Exchange Association (ASEA) plan to come up with standards for listings and regulation, enhance corporate governance, and use technology to showcase shares across the continent. The association is hoping to work together to sell Africa as a single investment prospect for the rest of the world, which would help fight criticism that after years of talking, little integration of African bourses has come about.”The key thing is to trigger the interest of foreign investors and to market Africa as an investment destination as individually most of our stock exchanges are too small, and there is no information on them out there,” said the ASEA’s chairman, Egypt’s Maged Shawky Sourial.Some members have shared information on trading surveillance and on the release of company results and news, but cross-border listings or joint marketing of the continent’s bourses or harmonised regulations have been few or non-existent.Attempts to standardise clearance and settlement of share deals have also been slow, and exchange controls, tax and other trade barriers have hindered success, delegates at a meeting in Johannesburg said.Sourial said the association had long hoped for integration, but this was difficult without single currency, tax, listing and regulatory practises.”We want one single agenda for the markets, this does not mean that you need to have a unified stock exchange,” said Sourial, who heads the Cairo and Alexandria bourses.Nampa-ReutersThe association is hoping to work together to sell Africa as a single investment prospect for the rest of the world, which would help fight criticism that after years of talking, little integration of African bourses has come about.”The key thing is to trigger the interest of foreign investors and to market Africa as an investment destination as individually most of our stock exchanges are too small, and there is no information on them out there,” said the ASEA’s chairman, Egypt’s Maged Shawky Sourial.Some members have shared information on trading surveillance and on the release of company results and news, but cross-border listings or joint marketing of the continent’s bourses or harmonised regulations have been few or non-existent.Attempts to standardise clearance and settlement of share deals have also been slow, and exchange controls, tax and other trade barriers have hindered success, delegates at a meeting in Johannesburg said.Sourial said the association had long hoped for integration, but this was difficult without single currency, tax, listing and regulatory practises.”We want one single agenda for the markets, this does not mean that you need to have a unified stock exchange,” said Sourial, who heads the Cairo and Alexandria bourses.Nampa-Reuters