A stockbroker at the Nairobi Securities Exchange trading floor. FILE PHOTO | NMG British gold miner Papillon is set to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) mainboard in September after completing the first phase of its dual listing at the London Stocks Exchange this month.
The company will be renamed Caracal Gold following a reverse takeover deal with Mayflower Gold which owns gold mines in Migori.
A reverse takeover is where the target is larger than the bidder with the result that the target shareholders become majority shareholders in the bidder, hence Mayflower will have a greater stake.
The firm appointed Faida Investments bank in a joint venture with UK-based VSA Capital Limited to lead the Kenyan listing.
“Subject to the necessary approvals of the Capital Markets Authority of Kenya (‘CMA’) and the NSE, it is expected that the NSE Listing will be completed, and the Company’s shares will commence trading on the NSE in September 2021,” the company said.
Mayflower announced the dual listing worth Sh2.1 billion during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s three-day London tour but did not give details of the dates it will offer shares to the public.
The Migori miner has been growing its local portfolio including the purchase of Migori-based gold miner Kilimapesa Gold from London-listed gold miner Goldplat in January.
The gold miner will also buy a 70 percent stake in a joint venture interest in Congo Gold SARL for interests in the Kakamoeka Gold Project
Mayflower will be the third company to cross-list in Nairobi and London following the footsteps of Atlas Development & Support Services and Kakuzi.
Atlas cross-listed in 2014 but has since left the bourse leaving Kakuzi as the only firm at the NSE and the London Stocks Exchange.
Mayflower‘s listing would give the NSE much needed boost in attracting initial public offerings which have fizzled out since solid corporations such as KenGen and Safaricom came to the market.The NSE mainboard has failed to attract quality companies in the recent past getting only small firms in the growth and enterprise segment, while a number of medium-sized firms have been delisting from the bourse.