Markets & Finance

Mayfox Mining postpones planned NSE listing

mugwe

Mayfox Mining chairman Manga Mugwe. The firm plans to list on Nairobi Securities Exchange’s Growth Enterprise Market Segment depending on results of exploration activities in northern Kenya. PHOTO | FILE

Gold explorer Mayfox Mining has postponed listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to 2015 as it awaits results from ongoing work at its Turkana-based fields.

Its nominated advisers said the company would resume listing plans once it completes work in the northern Kenya fields.

Depending on the results of the ongoing exploration, the company will then raise more capital and list on the bourse’s Growth Enterprise Market Segment (GEMS).

“The planned NSE listing has been postponed to next year, as Mayfox Mining wishes to conduct further mineral exploration and development work this year which will be funded by a private placement financing,” Kestrel Capital chief executive Andre DeSimone told the Business Daily.

“Assuming the further exploration work produces the desired results, then another larger capital raise and NSE listing would occur next year.”

Mayfox Mining is prospecting for gold and other precious metals in Turkana County and in March said it planned to list by the end of this year.
The firm’s 2013 annual report says listing in 2015 is within its desired timeline.

“With respect to corporate developments, Mayfox Mining will be completing a company restructuring that will involve the changing of its legal headquarters, and the widening of its stakeholders’ list.

“Having achieved these conditions, Mayfox Mining will proceed, within the biennium, to a listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange,” said Mayfox chairman Manga Mugwe in the 2013 annual report.

Mayfox had appointed RSM Ashvir and Kaplan & Stratton as as the financial and legal advisers respectively.

READ: Miner to list on the NSE as it seeks exploration funds

Should Mayfox list, it will become the first mining firm to list on the securities exchange GEMS, giving investors access to the multi-billion shilling industry.

Data from the Economic Survey 2014 shows Kenya processed gold worth Sh7.43 billion in 2013, a 47 per cent drop from Sh13.92 billion a year earlier. The drop was attributed to gold prices declining in the international market.

Base Resources, the Australian firm mining titanium in Kwale County, also has local shareholding from institutional investors.

Empire Microsystems, Flame Tree Group and East African Data Handlers are the other firms planning to join Home Afrika in having shares listed on the GEMS.

The Mugwe family is the majority owner in Mayfox through mineral exploration investment fund Mayfox Mining Mauritius Limited, while European investors make up the remaining shareholding.

Mr Mugwe is a manufacturer who previously owned a stake in a telecommunications company.