Yemisi Izuora
The Bureau for Public Enterprise, BPE, said it would push that core investor in certain privatised enterprises sold by deferred public offering to sell at least 20 percent of such entities to the market through a public listing.
The BPE is also conducting an assessment of privatised enterprises, especially in the petrochemical sector with a view to divesting the Federal Government shares through the capital market.
The Director-General of the BPE, Alex Okoh, who noted that public listings remain a strategic objective of the reform and privatisation programme of the Federal Government, explained that the BPE would ensure that technical partners are retained in the privatised enterprises over a long term with continued engagement with the relevant authorities to seek certain waivers where necessary to make public listings more easily achievable for the privatised entities.
Presenting a paper titled: ‘Creating An Enabling Environment For Public Listings Of The Economy’s Commanding Heights: The Case For Telecommunications and Energy Sectors which he presented at the 2017 annual national workshop of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers in Abuja on Tuesday, Okoh explained that the privatisation agency would develop policies to attract additional private sector capital into the privatised companies in order to encourage more listings on the stock market.
Furthermore, he added that the Bureau would henceforth ensure that the right core investors with the financial, technical and managerial competencies are selected to ensure that they are capable of moving privatised entities to the desired level in order to make them attractive for public listings.
“The BPE is working with core investors in certain privatised enterprises sold by deferred public offering to ensure that they sell at least 20 percent of such entities to the market via a public listing. “The privatisation agency would develop policies to attract additional private sector capital into the privatised companies which will eventually give confidence to the business and encourage listing”.
Okoh called for the establishment of an institutional framework to reach targets in both public and private sectors and to identify quick wins, medium term goals, long-term achievements.