Liaison targets Nairobi bourse listing in Africa expansion drive

Financial services firm Liaison Group plans to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to raise funds for Africa expansion.

The firm currently operates in five countries including Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

“We will be one of the first risk advisory businesses to float. We would like to go to the stock exchange, raise more capital and grow to Africa,” Liaison Group managing director Tom Mulwa said.

“In a very short time we have to be in all those other African countries.,” he added.

Liaison Group is owned by Sovereign Group, an investment company controlled by millionaire tycoon Joshua Kulei, Mr Mulwa and businessman Wachira Mahihu who is also founder and chairman of the firm.

Its past financials results remain undisclosed hence its performance in the market is unknown.

About 60 per cent of the Liaison’s business is in risk advisory both in general and healthcare targeting corporates and government parastatals. The others are in pension management and investment.

A listing on NSE would see it join other insurance firms including Jubilee Holdings, Sanlam Kenya, Britam Holdings, CIC Insurance Group, Liberty Kenya and Kenya Re-Insurance.

The NSE, which has 65 listed firms, has in recent years suffered a dearth of IPO listings, which are key in introducing new investors into the market.

It has instead seen a raft of listings by introduction, largely limited to small firms under its Growth and Enterprise Markets Segment (GEMS).

It has been lobbying the government to sell additional shares in successful blue chips such as Safaricom and KCB to the public as well as introduce unlisted parastatals.

The Nairobi bourse has seen interest form a Kenya-based Danish hair products firm Africanhair PLC, trading as BeautyClick which announced plans to list to raise new equity for regional expansion