Kenya based Danish hair products firm Africanhair PLC, trading as BeautyClick plans to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to raise new equity for regional expansion.
BeautyClick, which Danish investors founded in 2016, said it has started the process of acquiring requisite regulatory approvals for a listing and further capitalisation at the stock market.
The company’s founder and director Jesper Drescher said its shareholders have also approved the listing plan.
“To this end, we have appointed a team of experienced transaction advisers to provide the appropriate guidance on the process,” said Mr Drescher, although he did not state the timelines for the listing plans.
The company said it has appointed Standard Investment Bank as the lead transaction adviser for the potential listing.
Beauty Click entered the Kenyan market in April 2016, looking to push its range of hair care products in the market through an e-commerce platform.
NSE chief executive Geoffrey Odundo confirmed the bourse was aware of the firm’s plan to list on the market.
“They are in the process of making a submission to the CMA (Capital Markets Authority),” he told the Business Daily.
“They are exploring the best option,” he added when asked which listing segment the firm is eyeing.
The NSE, which has 65 listed firms, has in recent years suffered a dearth of IPO listings, which are key in introducing new investors into the market.
It has instead seen a raft of listings by introduction, largely limited to small firms under its Growth and Enterprise Markets Segment, which have failed to excite the market much.The NSE has been banking on its new incubation programme in a bid to raise the number of companies listed on the stock market, as well as lobbying the government to sell additional shares in successful blue chips such as Safaricom and KCB to the public. This is a departure from the past where the NSE has been waiting on businesses to put their house in order then approach them for listing, a process that has proved slow and sometimes exposed new shareholders and creditors to losses.