* Kenyan brewer raises $76.42 mln in share sale
* Foreign investors show strong appetite for shares
* Locals buy more than half of shares on offer
DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 6 (Reuters) – East African
Breweries said on Friday the sale of its 20 percent
stake in SABMiller’s Tanzanian unit was heavily
oversubscribed, with foreign investors showing plenty of
appetite.
Analysts said Tanzania Breweries Limited enjoyed a
huge lead in a market seen as offering significant growth
opportunities, hence the massive investor appetite for the
shares of a firm that has a record of making good profits.
EABL, which is controlled by Britain’s Diageo, was
selling 59 million shares in Tanzania Breweries, after it
purchased a stake in rival Serengeti Breweries in order to go it
alone in east Africa’s second largest economy.
“Applications were received … for a total of 144,462,780
shares, representing approximately 245 per cent of the number of
offer shares available,” EABL said in a statement.
Foreign investors applied for a total of 111,852,540 shares,
which were priced at 2,060 shillings ($1.30) per share, but were
allocated 26,375,453 shares, or 44.72 percent of the shares on
offer.
Local investors applied for 32,586,640 shares and were
allocated all the shares, equivalent to 55.24 percent of the
total shares on offer, with investors from other east African
nations applying for and picking up 23,600 shares or just 0.04
percent of the stake on offer.
Continued…
