Compulsory listing of telcos could send foreign investors away from Nigeria – expert
Taiwo Oyedele a tax expert at PricewaterHouseCoopers (PWC) has warned that the move by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to compel telecoms companies such as MTN, Airtel and Etisalat to become publicly listed companies may send foreign companies away from the country.
He told ThisDay that compelling companies to list could be counterproductive and make the Nigerian economy unattractive to prospective companies.
He said, “If all the companies operating in Nigeria with shareholders’ funds in excess of N40 billion or with annual turnover of over N80 billion are forced to list on the Nigerian bourse, the foreign firms may leave the country for other African countries because such it is not encouraging.
Going by the present state of the market, he said the capital market may not have the capacity to absorb the shares of private companies that are compelled to list on the NSE.
“This is because investors will want to sell their shares in other companies to buy the shares of companies like MTN, Glo, Chevron and so on. So if everybody is selling and nobody is buying, prices will tumble and this may crash the market,” he said.
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