BPE to list 20 percent of privatised entities in stock market

Efforts by the regulators to revive the primary market segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) received a boost as the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) has said the agency is currently working with core investors in certain privatised enterprises sold by deferred public offering to ensure that they sell at least 20 per cent of such entities to the market through public listing.

Besides, the agency also stated that it was also undertaking a quick assessment of privatized enterprises, especially in the petro-chemical sector with a view to divesting the Federal Government shares through the capital market.

The Director- General of the BPE, Alex A. Okoh, who noted that public listings remain a strategic objective of the reform and privatization programme of the Federal Government, explained that the BPE would ensure that technical partners are retained in the privatized enterprises over a long term with continued engagement with the relevant authorities to seek certain waivers where necessary to make public listings more easily achievable for the privatized entities.