Prospectus for the Issue of Ghc 400 million Government of Ghana 3-year Fixed Rate Bond

BANK OF GHANA

NOTICE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

NOTICE NO. BG/TD/2014 /17

PROSPECTUS FOR THE ISSUE OF GH¢400 MILLION

GOVERNMENT OF GHANA 3-YEAR FIXED RATE BOND

1. INVITATION OF BIDS

Further to the Bank of Ghana Notice No.: BG/TD/2014/01 on the Issuance Calendar for Government of Ghana securities for the half-year period, 1st January – 30th June, 2014, the Bank of Ghana invites bids for the issue of the above instrument on behalf of the Government of Ghana through the Auction process. The instrument will be Ghana cedi-denominated and will be issued at par. It shall bear a coupon rate equal to the highest competitive bid accepted at the auction for the security. The coupon rate so fixed shall carry throughout the term of the security.

2. TERMS
Issuer: Government of Ghana
Purpose: Government Financing Requirement
Amount: GH¢400 million
Issue Method: Through an auction to be held on 24th April, 2014
Price: The instrument shall be issued at par.
Denomination: Each Bond shall have a face value of one Ghana cedi.
Minimum Bid: GH¢50,000 and multiples of GH¢1,000 thereafter.
Coupon: To be determined at the auction to be held on 24th
April, 2014, as described under (1) above.
Interest Payment: Semi-annually from the Issue Date, in October and April.
The amount of interest paid on every coupon payment
date shall be equal to the principal amount at the
coupon rate for half-year.

Withholding Tax:
The Internal Revenue Act 2000 requires the Bank to withhold tax in respect of interest payments to resident corporations holding Bonds on their own account at the rate of 10% of the gross amount of the payment.
Interest paid to a non-resident holder (individual and institution) on Bonds issued by the Government of
Ghana is exempt from tax.
Application Methods: Bids may be made on either a competitive or noncompetitive basis through Primary Dealers only. Primary Dealers may also submit bids on their own behalf. Bids received will not be revocable.
Participation: The 3-year Fixed Rate Bond shall be available to both resident and non-resident investors.
Closing Date: Bids must be electronically delivered to the Central Securities Depository Auction Module not later than 1.30pm on Thursday, 24th April, 2014.
Allocation of Bonds: The Bank of Ghana reserves the right to reject any or part of any competitive or non-competitive bid. Subject to this, competitive bids will be ranked in ascending order of the annual rate of interest bid. Securities will be sold to applicants whose competitive bids are at or below the highest rate at which the Bank of Ghana decides that any competitive bid would be accepted (the "uniform allocation rate"). Applicants whose competitive bids are accepted will purchase securities at par with the coupon fixed at the uniform allocation rate.
Competitive bids which are accepted and which are made at rates below the uniform allocation rate will be satisfied in full. Competitive bids which are accepted and which are made at the uniform allocation rate may be satisfied in part only. Non-competitive bids will be accepted at the uniform allocation rate. Settlement: Settlement shall take place on 28th April, 2014. Registrar: The Register will be maintained on a book-entry system on the Central Securities Depository and therefore no certificates will be issued.

Listing of Bonds: The security shall be listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) for secondary market trading both at the floor of the Exchange or over the counter (OTC). Trading in the securities is subject to the listing rules of the GSE for Government Securities. Redemption The Bond shall be redeemed by the issuer on the maturity date, which shall be 24th April, 2017. Such redemption shall be at par.

(Sgd.)
CAROLINE OTOO (MRS)
THE SECRETARY
April 14, 2014

Courtesy: BANK OF GHANA.

PROSPECTUS FOR THE ISSUE OF GH¢400 MILLION GOVERNMENT OF GHANA 3-YEAR FIXED RATE BOND

BANK OF GHANA
NOTICE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC
NOTICE NO. BG/TD/2013 /07
PROSPECTUS FOR THE ISSUE OF GH¢400 MILLION
GOVERNMENT OF GHANA 3-YEAR FIXED RATE BOND

1. INVITATION OF BIDS

Further to the Bank of Ghana Notice No.: BG/TD/2012/58 on the Issuance Calendar for Government of Ghana securities for the half-year period: 1st January – 30th June, 2013, the Bank of Ghana invites bids for the issue of the above instrument on behalf of the Government of Ghana through the Auction process.

The instrument will be Ghana Cedi-denominated and will be issued at par. It shall bear a coupon rate equal to the highest competitive bid accepted at the auction for the security. The coupon rate so fixed shall carry throughout the term of the security.

Invest in Ghana. Find out Why

Invest in Ghana: Africa's Golden Gateway to a safe and stable Investment Destination.  Below are some reasons.
1. A stable political environment within the West Africa sub region.
2. Abundant, adaptable and easily trainable labour force.
3. A competitive daily minimum wage rate.

Overview of the First Half of 2012 on the Ghana Stock Exchange: Half Year Review.

With a market capitalization of about GHS 55,015.14 million ( USD 31,612.04 million ), the Ghana Stock Exchange closed the first half of the year on a good note and has began the second half with great prospects.

The market’s major index which includes all listed stocks, The GSE Composite Index (GSE CI) opened the year below the base index (1000) with 969.03 points. As at the last trading session in the first half, the GSE CI recorded 1045.48 point with a percentage change of 7.89% as compared to 18.89% gain in the same period last year.

Dollarization of the Ghanaian Economy: MD writes.

By Guest Blogger: David Mawutor Avor ( M. D. Avor );

Not too long ago, I used to watch the News on television without giving a hoot about business news. In fact, I would rather switch my channel to a different station than watch all those “meaningless” figures about the “dollar is trading at…” and so forth. How times change! Now that I have started

Is Ezwich stealing from the Cashless Society? Greed vs Pain

The ezwich system which is supposed to make life easier for us is causing more pain by ‘draining’ our accounts more than necessary. Ezwich is the brand name for the National Switch and Smart-card payment system and this system offers Deposit taking financial institutions (universal banks, rural banks and Saving & Loans) a platform that enables them to interoperate, obviously at the expense of the customers or users of the ezwich. The National Service Personnel

UT Bank is the 2nd to win the Bank of the Year award on the Ghana Stock Exchange

After a short time of operating as a commercial bank in Ghana, UT Bank breaks Ecobank Ghana’s monopoly and becomes the second bank listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to win the Bank of the Year category at the Ghana Banking Awards since 2001.
The Bank of the Year is an award
category that goes to the bank with the highest weighted scores for the customer survey, corporate social responsibility and financial performance. The race to the top in the
Banking industry has

Focusing on the Banking sector of the Ghana Stock Exchange (Part I)

The financial sector on the Ghana Stock Exchange includes banking and non-banking stocks. There are seven (7) banks on the exchange, six of which operate in the country and one in Gambia, (Trust Bank ltd, TBL). The banks operating in Ghana include CAL Bank (CAL), Ecobank Ghana (EBG), Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), HFC Bank (HFC), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), and UT Bank (UTB).

Let us now look at the various facts & figures behind these banks and how they performed since January 2012 on the Stock market.
I would be concentrating on GCB & HFC in this post.

Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB);

GCB - Bloomberg Chart: Price movement from Dec 2011 to May 2012. 

With market capitalization of about GHS 506.15 million, GCB began the

Fri.18.05.12: Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) Market Update.

Friday, GSE Market Update;

CAL Brokers: 

Courtesy: CAL Brokers

In the market today, the major indices, the GSE-Composite Index and the GSE-Financial Stock Index, gained some ground following price appreciation in two equities.

The GSE-Composite Index closed at 1,046.94 points from 1,041.30 points and the financial stock benchmark closed 6.99 points higher at 910.75 points. The year-to-date return on the market rose to 8.04%. 

How fast does information reflect in the prices of shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange?

The question about efficiency of the capital market always comes up in my mind. And now I am asking how fast information released by stakeholders of the market affects or reflect on prices on the exchange.

Shareholders make investment decisions based on the information they get from stakeholders of the market. Such information include new tax measures announced by the government, announcement of new products by the company, release of annual reports and announcement of higher or lower dividends. In the advanced markets, for instance on Wall Street, information released by companies or the government rapidly reflects on the prices of shares within minutes. Information release at non-trading hours affects the market in the next trading session.

In the Ghanaian market on the other hand, one can hardly tell the relationship between information and their effect on the prices in the market. Moreover, the speed of reflection on the market varies from time to time.
In the immediate past, CAL Bank share price saw a decrease when there was a problem in the company with respect to share transfer between two parties. How direct and certain can one be to link the cause of decrease in share price to that particular information? Other stocks in the market have shown similar trend. By my observations in the earnings season, share prices respond to the performance of companies as reported by their financial. Even at this time, the speed of reflection is an issue to be concerned about.

 I can’t wait for the capital market to reach the point where information takes minutes to reflect on the market. This would make the market active and inform investors in making good decisions moreover, aiding accurate speculations.

1st Quarter Analysis of the Manufacturing sector on the Ghana Stock Exchange

The Manufacturing sector on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) include stocks like that of Unilever Ghana Ltd. (UNIL), PZ Cussons Ghana Ltd. (PZC), Aluworks Limited (ALW) and the Pioneer Kitchen Limited (PKL). PKL is no more listed on the GSE with effect from 26^th March 2012 due to a sanction from the exchange for refusing to observe the continuing listing obligation including failure to hold annual general meetings. This move by the GSE reduces the market capitalization and that of the manufacturing sector by about GHS 2 million (about $1.25 million).

This sector on the exchange is dominated by Unilever Ghana Ltd; with a market capitalization of GHS 509.37 million (about $312.50 million), making it the most capitalized in the manufacturing sector.

UNIL

Unilever Ghana Limited (UNIL) manufactures and markets consumer goods throughout Ghana some of which includes toilet soaps, personal products, detergents, and consumable food products.

UNIL: 1st Quarter Chart on GSE: (courtesy; Bloomberg & GSE) 

This year, UNIL began trading at GHS 6.64 (03.01.12) per share on the exchange and saw price hikes to close at GHS 8.15 as at today with a Year-High of GHS 8.15 and a Year-Low of GHS 6.63. An investment made in UNIL exactly one year ago would yield 31.34% profit.  UNIL records a Price/Book value of 8.0428 in the most recent Quarter with Earning per share and Price/Earnings ratio of 0.5081 and 16.0388 (trailing 12 months) respectively.

PZC

PZC 1st Quarter Chart on GSE: (courtesy; Bloomberg & GSE) 

PZ Cussons Ghana Ltd. (PZC) is another company in the manufacturing sector on the GSE. This company is the manufacturer of over-the-counter pharmaceutical preparations, cosmetics and beauty products. PZC began trading on the exchange in 2012 with a share price of 0.24p (03.01.12) and since then, there was no price change. The 1^st quarter did not favour PZC in terms of price change although it traded some volumes of share in the quarter. With a market capitalization of GHS 40.32 million, PZC recorded a dividend yield (trailing 12 months) of GHS 1.5694 and as reported by Bloomberg, an enterprise value of GHS 38.54 million.

ALW

ALW: 1st Quarter Chart on GSE: (courtesy; Bloomberg & GSE) 

Aluworks Ghana Limited as the name implies works with aluminum. It is an aluminum rolling mill with produces semi-finished and finished aluminum sheet in coil, circles, flat sheet and corrugated roofing sheets. This company was incorporated on February 24, 1978 and currently has a market capitalization of GHS 6.44 million making it the lowest in the manufacturing sector on the exchange since PKL has been suspended. ALW began the quarter and the year with a 0.13p share price (03.01.12)  and later dropped to 0.12p to 0.9p and now closed at 0.07p per share. With an obvious Year-High of 0.13p and a Year-low of 0.07p/share, ALW has a Price/Book of 0.2355, Earning per share (trailing 12 months) of -0.0977 and an Enterprise value of GHS 28.04 million.

The Manufacturing Sector as a whole did not performed so well despite the driving and dominating strength of UNIL in the sector. Investors should follow closely activities in this particular sector and look for the opportunities. 

Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) in the 1st Quarter of 2012 on Ghana Stock Exchange

6 months performance on GSE - BOPP [Oct - Mar]

Benso Oil Palm Plantation with GSE stock ticker symbol; [BOPP] is an oil palm producing and processing company and was listed on the GSE on August 30, 2004 when it was converted into the public limited liability. The nature of businesses the company is authorized to carry on include: Growing of oil palm and other agricultural products, Processing of oil palm fruits to produce palm oil and palm kernels and Dealing & trading in palm oil, palm kernels and other agricultural products.

BOPP on the Ghana Stock Exchange has recently been the choice for investors as the company continues to show greatness in different forms.

The Key Statistics for BOPP as researched by Bloomberg reveals that, the current P/E ratio [trailing twelve months (ttm)] is 6.0546 and Earning per share (EPS) (ttm) is 0.2808.  BOPP’s current market capitalization is GHS 59.16 million with about 34.80 million shares outstanding. Price per Book (most recent quarter) is valued at 1.9908.

BOPP started the year, 2012 on the Ghana Stock Exchange with a share price of GHS 1.10 (03.01.12) and has since been rising to attain a year high of GHS 1.78 (20.02.12); the highest since 18^th October, 2011. An investment made in BOPP exactly a year ago would make an outstanding 121.23% profit to date.

Year to Date change on GSE - BOPP [Jan -Mar. ]

Analysts predict further rise in price of this stock in the year but the greatest fear for most investors is the Election Year fever on the market which has shown its power over stocks in the past years.

We hope to closely follow this stock and see how investors react to it despite the election year’s controlling force in the market. 

Is CAL Bank undervalued on the Ghana Stock Exchange?

The debate continues everywhere among investors as they keep wondering whether CAL Bank shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange are undervalued. My earlier post on the 2011 year review of CAL bank on GSE has shown clear analysis of CAL as at last year. It showed the potential of CAL's share price rising this year as the bank plans to recapitalize to meet the required capital as proposed by the Bank of Ghana. Meanwhile, some investors and market analysts argue that, the share price is undervalued to the extent of stating that there could be a rally on the exchange for these stocks very soon.
Let us look at some figures of the Bank; (courtesy: Bloomberg)

Valuation and Earnings as at 20.02.12.

The Banking stock shows a relative P/E to the GSE Composite Index of 0.2628 and a P/E ratio (ttm) of 3.6220 as reported by market analysts.

With a current market capitalization of about GHC 64.48 million, the Bank would recapitalize this year to meet the requirement.


Dividends figures & Other Market figures

Chart: Share Price Movement from December 2011 to Date on GSE.

Bank of Ghana vs. Onward Investment Limited, Power vs. Fraud?

 With a vision ‘to achieve a comparative advantage among leading investment companies…’ and a mission ‘to become an outstanding provider of legitimate investment services…’ Onward Investment Limited, an indigenous Ghanaian company with registration number CA-75,073 is experiencing the sanction of Bank of Ghana (BOG) as they operate without a license in the financial market.

BOG is making a relentless effort to protect ordinary investors in the system hence would stop any organization that flouts its regulations.

Onward Investment Limited has an aim to contribute to the economy by developing the Forex market through the offering of Forex training services and online forex trading for individuals in the country and even foreigners. But it’s very unfortunate on their part that the BOG had to put a hold on their operations and warn the public about them, on the basis of not having a license to receive deposits from the public. What is the point in trying to achieve those great visions without passing through the right processes?

How many of these unlicensed financial service providers are in the system? What is the Securities and Exchange Commission doing to protect investors? Why do companies refuse to get a license if that could boost their businesses? Are the licensing processes too rigid or demanding? These are questions the average investor is asking.  

On the part of Onward Investment ltd.; who are the owners? , what is their expertise? , what are their records and what are the clear benefits for the investment community. If potential partners and investors find it difficult to answer these questions then there is something wrong.

The only 'known' Board of Directors of this company includes; Lawrence Mensah, Mohammed B. Saleh , Kwesi T. Ababio and Simon Y. Nyarko.

We hope to know more about this company and the progress of their restriction by the Bank of Ghana.

Is Ghana Stock Exchange a company? Who owns it? What is it then?

Hello reader,
I decided to write this because of some questions posed to me by some followers of this blog and it is all about the Ghana Stock Exchange. "Is the Ghana Stock Exchange a company?" she asked, If it is a company then who owns it and what do they do? If not a company then what is it?
Just like a market for trading fish, tomatoes, yam and other products, the Ghana Stock Exchange is a platform for trading securities (shares, bonds, futures, etc). Sellers bring their products and buyers come to buy. But because there are a lot of sellers and buyers, they are represented on the Exchange by Licensed Dealing Members (LDMs), (what people called Brokerage Firms or brokers). This means as a buyer or a seller, you cannot go to the exchange to buy or sell yourself (although some do).
The Ghana Stock Exchange plays a major role in securities industry regulation and is thus classified as a Self- Regulatory Organization. With respect to its numerous responsibilities, it simply monitors trading. It has Directors just like a company but the Securities and Exchange Commission oversees its regulation by making sure they do what they are supposed to do in the market and what is appropriate under the Security Industry Law (SIL)- the principal regulator.
When Public Limited Liability Companies want to raise capital for their business, the list shares on the exchange (that is, allowing people to own part of their company), so when investors study the company and find that the company is good and strong among other factors, they contact their brokers for them to make the trade - money, for part of the company. That is what the Ghana Stock Exchange oversees; that the right amount is paid and the ownership rights of part of the company is transferred to the name of the buyer or investor (in form of shares).
Finally, the Ghana Stock Exchange is privately financed and managed with the budget mainly financed by its members (LDMs and Associates) and issuer companies.

Value Investing and its rewards on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

There are different kinds of stocks or shares of companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange and every investor has a purpose for investing with reference to individual risk preference and time horizon. An investor’s purpose for investing could be for growth or for income or value. Value investing is investing in stocks believed to be worth far more than their current prices rather than those that pay high dividends or seem likely to appreciate irrespective of underlying value. 

On the stock market, there are some stocks that are mispriced. Mispricing is calculated as the difference between the estimated intrinsic value and the market price of a stock. Intrinsic value of an asset, in this case stock, is the value of the asset given a hypothetically complete understanding of the asset’s investment characteristics.  Therefore when a stock is undervalued on the exchange, there is an investment opportunity and smart investors take advantage of that.

The Question then is, how do you know whether a stock is undervalued or not? This is where you need an expert to advice you. Knowing this involves a lot of factors and calculations. One must first valuate the stock using some figures on the financial statement of the company. Some industry experts say that, UT bank is currently undervalued on the stock market. They make their argument with respect to the potentials of the company and how low it is currently priced on the Stock market (0.33p, courtesy: GSE). One thing you should know is that, so many investors do these calculations and that informs their investments strategy. An advice to you is that, for an active strategy to be consistent and successful, the investor’s expectations must differ from consensus expectations and be, on average, correct as well.