Rwanda Capital Market Authority (CMA) has approved the first South African healthcare company, RH Bophelo Limited to be cross-listed on the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE).
RH Bophelo entry on the local bourse makes it the 9th company to be listed on the RSE stock market but also comes at a time when another South African company Cimerwa PPC is also planning on the same move.
The company will officially be cross-listed tomorrow morning Monday June 1st 2020 on the RSE counters with an official ceremony to ring the first market bell to trade RH Bophelo shares, according to Eric Bundugu, Acting Executive Director of the CMA in Rwanda.
RH Bophelo’s cross-listing, will be the first one by a company incorporated and listed outside the East African Community (EAC) and will increase the total number of listed companies to the Rwandan stock market to nine (9).
Bundugu said the cross-listing of RH Bophelo on the local stock market is a critical milestone in positioning Rwanda as an entryway for regional and international capital flows by developing a creative and diverse set of products that encourage investor confidence in issued products.
“This new development reconfirms Rwanda’s leading position towards maintaining itself as the leading investment choice destination and an international financial center of excellence by fostering cross-border trade and investments,” Bundugu said.
RH Bophelo, incorporated in South Africa and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) since July 2017, is an investment company whose principal activity is to invest in the healthcare in a manner that promotes access to quality healthcare services.
The Rwanda’s stock market has so far been having eight (8) listed companies (four local including four (4) cross-listed companies from the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
These include Bank of Kigali, Bralirwa, Crystal telecoms, I&M Bank alongside foreign companies like Nation Media Group, Uchumi, Equity Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank.
The Capital Market Master Plan, a 10-year development strategy of Rwanda’s capital market industry, 2018 – 2028, sets out the steps which the Government of Rwanda (GoR) intends to undertake in order to be able to exploit the tools of capital market finance to unleash the full potential of the economy and to enable Rwanda to play its role as a financial hub within the economy of East Africa.
