UT Lists on GSE

UT lists (fin)
Story: Boahene Asamoah

UT Financial Services, an indigenous non-banking institution was today listed on the trading floor of the Ghana Stock Exchange at GH¢0.30 and immediately gained a 10 per cent price appreciation.
The listing of the shares comes after a successful initial public offer which saw the floatation of 90 million shares of the company to the investing public to raise GH¢27 million.
It’s shares were oversubscribed by 1.7 per cent, mainly individual investors.
UT Financial Services now has over 10,843 shareholders.
UT thus becomes the 35th company to be listed on the market and third company to be listed this year.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer of the company Mr Prince Kofi Amoabeng, assured shareholders that the company would continue on the path of growth to ensure higher share holder value.
“I can assure shareholders that we would live up to expectations”, Mr Amoabeng stated.
He said the primary interest of the company now was to fulfil the interest of shareholders and added that systems were in place to ensure the continuos viability of the company way into the future.
Mr Amoabeng paid glowing tribute to the staff of the company for their dedication to work and for playing a major part in what has become a world-class financial institution.
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Executive Chairman of Databank, lead brokers of the offer, reiterated that the successful over-subscription of the offer was remarkable considering the difficult period under which the offer was done.
He mentioned the credit crunch, the global financial turmoil and the refusal of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to take a major stake in the UT share offer as some of the challenges that offer faced.
Mr Ofori-Atta said the business of UT Financial Services was viable in that the normal banking institutions have not be able to cover the niche market where UT operates, whiles there was a huge difference between UT Financial Services and the competition.
The Chairman of the GSE Council, Mr Frank Adu Jnr, said Ghanaians must celebrate Ghanaian companies that have been able to become very successful.
“It is not easy to grow business in our environment”, he acknowledged.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Mr K.S. Yamoah, called on shareholders of UT Financial Services to contact their brokers to convert their paper certificates into the electronic trading system to help ensure liquidity and improve efficiency.