Retail sale of Umeme shares from Actis exit opens; closes 6 December

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A total of 37,349,155 ordinary shares of Umeme Limited (UMEM) were on Friday opened to retail investors on the Uganda Securities Exchange at a discounted price of Shs488 per share.

The retail sale runs from 18 November to 6 December 2016. The shares are being sold through brokers on the Uganda and Nairobi stock exchanges.

The least number of shares an investor can buy in the sale is 1,000, while the maximum is 400,000. On the opening day of the sale, 12,272 Umeme shares were traded while turnover was Shs5.99 million. The stock opened at Shs489 and closed at Shs488, the discounted retail price. There were 208,700 outstanding bids for the stock.

The shares were left over from the exit of Umeme Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of London-listed private equity firm Actis, which divested its stake in Umeme Limited. Formerly the majority shareholder in the power distributor, Umeme Holdings sold 121.82 million shares of the 232.21 million Umeme Limited shares it owned to the National Social Security Fund; other buyers of the remaining stake (73 million shares) have not been revealed.

The NSSF deal, announced on 7 November, saw the pension fund become the largest shareholder in Umeme Limited with 23%.

Umeme Limited closed at Shs525 per share on 4 November when the USE suspended trading in the utility’s stock to allow Actis exit without disrupting the share price. NSSF acquired its additional 8.73% stake in the company at the discounted price of Shs488 per share.

More on this story:
Trading in Umeme resumes after Actis exits stake
NSSF increases Umeme stake to 23% as Actis unplugs from power distributor
Umeme shares suspended as stockholder considers sale