NSE Appoints Advisors to Prepare Possible IPO

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has appointed South African bank FirstRand and local investment firm Chapel Hill Denham to advise it on a possible share flotation, it said on Tuesday.

The bourse, which has the second biggest weighting on the MSCI frontier market index after Kuwait, is a major entry point to invest in Africa.

The stock exchange said in November that it was considering an initial public offering to attract more foreign investors.

As a first step, the stock market plans to change its ownership structure from a mutual company of 240 brokers to add new shareholders.

This year, shares in the oil producing-nation have lost around 12.8 percent to add to the 16 percent loss last year. Foreign funds sold shares after the naira lost value due to the slump in the oil price.

The exchange, the second-largest African bourse by market value after South Africa, plans to allowing the trading of derivatives such as futures and options in interest rates, currencies and equity indexes by next year, it has said.

Nigeria's equities market, was until 2013 one of the world's best performing frontier markets but low liquidity levels and currency restrictions have now deterred foreign investors.