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Oragroup Seeks $100 Million in West African Bourse's Biggest IPO

Oragroup Seeks $100 Million in West African Bourse's Biggest IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Togolese lender Oragroup SA is planning to raise 56.9 billion CFA francs ($100 million) in the biggest initial public offering for West Africa’s regional exchange.

Oragroup will list 20 percent of its equity on the Bourse Regionale Des Valeurs Mobilieres in Ivory Coast’s capital, Abidjan, as it wants to raise funds to grow operations across 12 countries, the group said in an emailed statement on Friday. The bank will issue 6.1 million new shares and sell 7.8 million existing shares at 4,100 francs per share, Oragroup said in the statement.

“Oragroup wants to be in the top five best-performing banks in each country in which the group is present,” it said. In addition, the lender is planning for an annual increase of 5 percent of the dividends paid to its shareholders, it said.

Regional lenders from NSIA Group to the local unit of Ecobank Transnational Inc have sold shares and listed on the BRVM over the past two years as the eight-member West African Economic and Monetary Union achieved annual growth of more than 6 percent for six years through 2017. The previous biggest share sale was for the Ecobank unit, which raised 45 billion francs last year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Leanne de Bassompierre in Abidjan at ldebassompie@bloomberg.net;Baudelaire Mieu in Abidjan at bmieu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.