Swala Oil and Gas (Tanzania) Plc has become the second company to list on the Enterprise Growth Market (EGM), introduced on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) last year, to facilitate access of small- and medium-sized businesses to the capital market.
The Tanzanian oil and gas exploration company is actively exploring the East African Rift System and after its first trading day on the DSE on Monday, the company’s non-executive Chairman, Ernest Massawe, said it is “ready to start its 2014 seismic programme and looking foward to fruitful results.”
According to Massawe, the listing on the EGM has marked a new chapter for the company and another step forward to realising its “ambition to achieve a successful venture based on private and public partnership”.
The company is the 20th to list on the DSE and the second to list under the Enterprise Growth Market, an equity market specifically intended for SMEs and start-ups.
In July 2014, Swala Oil and Gas announced a successful completion of its Initial Public Offer (IPO) and placement of 13.3 million shares with 1,869 new and existing shareholders.
The IPO raised 6.6 billion Tanzania Shillings (over US$ 4million), which was an over-subscription of nearly four million shares.
Officiating at the company’s first appearance on the DSE, former Tanzanian President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, remarked: “Swala’s over-subscription shows a great investment appetite among Tanzanians in investing in their country’s economy and a growing confidence in the national stock exchange.”
Meanwhile, the DSE chief executive, Moremi Marwa, said that Swala is the second company to list on the EGM within a year of its launch.
“Listing on DSE comes with transparency, good corporate practices and proper disclosures,” he said, praising Swala Oil
