Tanzania approves Nation Media Group cross-listing

THIS WAY: NMG Group CEO, Linus Gitahi explains a point during the recent cross-listing on the USE. PHOTO BY YUSUF MUZIRANSA .

Tanzania’s Capital Market Authority has approved a proposal by the Nation Media Group (NMG) to cross list its shares on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE).

The move gives Tanzanians an opportunity to own a piece of East Africa’s biggest media house.

The DSE chief executive officer, Mr Gabriel Kitua, said in Dar es Salaam on Monday that authorities approved the proposal recently, paving way for the company to plan the cross-listing day.

Proposal approved
“The proposal has been approved by the authorities - what remains is for the company to decide when to go live at the DSE,” Mr Kitua told journalists at a seminar, organized by the stock market.

Cross-listing introduces shares of a listed company in a particular country on another stock exchange.
The DSE cross-listing makes NMG go live in four of five stock markets across East Africa.

In October, the company cross-listed its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) before cross-listing at the Rwanda OTC [Over The Counter] market last month.
It becomes the fifth Kenyan company to cross-list at the 12-years-old DSE.

Others are Kenya Airways, East African Breweries Limited, Kenya Commercial Bank and Jubilee Holdings. The firm, listed on Nairobi Stock Exchange since 1973, becomes the first media house to trade at the Dar bourse.

In Rwanda, the company introduced 157,118,572 ordinary shares during the listing period last month. Nation Media Group reported profit after tax of Ksh597.5 million (about Shs16 billion) for the first six months of 2010.

The company’s report for the first half of the current calendar year indicate that the Nation Newspaper Division posted a 20 per cent increase in advertisement revenues and a 14 per cent in total revenues while operating profit soared to 36 per cent.

The East African newspaper division also saw advertisement revenues going up by nine per cent as circulation revenues also went up by five per cent.

Circulation revenues from the Business Daily Newspaper also went up by 10 per cent while advertisement revenues increased by 30 per cent.

Increased revenues
Easy FM and Q FM have also been performing well, with revenues from Q FM increasing by 140 per cent. Revenues from K FM Uganda went up by 13 per cent as operating profits also went up by 32 per cent.

NTV Kenya revenues increased by 27 per cent while NTV Uganda’s went up by 60 per cent as circulation revenues from Monitor Publications in Uganda also went up by five per cent.

With a fully operational best printing quality in Tanzania, circulation revenues for Mwananchi Communication went up 32 per cent while advertising revenues also went up by 29 per cent.
Online advertisement also went up by 48 per cent.