Photo: The Citizen
By Ludger Kasumuni
Dar
es Salaam — Eighty-nine telecommunications companies are required to
list at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), the Tanzania
Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) said yesterday.
Only three firms -
Vodacom Tanzania, MIC Tanzania Limited (Tigo) and Airtel Tanzania - have
so far submitted their prospectuses to the Capital Markets and
Securities Authority (CMSA) as an initial step towards listing at the
DSE, TCRA Director General James Kilaba told reporters. This means that
CMSA has yet to hear from 86 companies.
Clarifying on what
will happen to the firms that failed to meet the December 31 deadline,
Mr Kilaba said that would depend on CMSA's verdict.
He said TCRA's task
was to submit to CMSA a list of all 89 firms that were supposed to
float their shares at the DSE to enable the companies kick-start the
process of sending their prospectuses to the authority for approval.
"Right now we
cannot take any action because the law on compulsory listing of shares
at the stock market requires us to submit a list of companies to CMSA
for assessment and then wait for their report," Mr Kilaba said.
"We can take action
only after an assessment by CMSA, which has the professional competence
to do that work. Action that can be taken against companies that will
have deemed to have acted in a defiant manner includes de-registration
and suspension"
Mr Kilaba said the
list forwarded to CMSA includes not only mobile phone companies, but
also internet service providers and other firms providing communication
services.
In fact, this is a
requirement of the Finance Act, 2016 which amended Section 26 of the
Electronic and Postal Communications Act, 2010 (Epoca).
The Finance Act
states that companies incorporated in Tanzania to provide
telecommunication services are required to offload at least 25 per cent
of their shares through an initial public offering (IPO) and
subsequently list at the DSE as CMSA regulations require.
Before the June
2016 amendments, Epoca only required mobile phone companies to float at
the DSE an unspecified number of shares that was to be determined by the
minister responsible for telecommunications.
Section 22 of Epoca
(together with the Finance Act amendments) says failure to comply with
mandatory listing at the DSE is a breach that can lead to the
cancellation or suspension of a company's licence if the firm will not
have remedied any such breach "within 30 days of receiving notification
from the Authority".
CMSA Public
Relations Manager Charles Shirima confirmed that only three mobile phone
operators had filed their prospectuses with the authority by yesterday.
"Our job is to
receive prospectuses from companies, and we normally spend 21 days
reviewing the documents before we can approve or reject them," he said.
The Minister of
Works, Transport and Communications, Prof Makame Mbarawa, last week
directed companies that had not taken the first steps towards listing to
do so before the deadline, which was only three days away.
No comments:
Post a Comment