LAGOS – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it was collaborating with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to ensure listing of numerous operating multinational companies on the nation’s bourse.
Mr Obi Adindu, Communications Adviser to SEC’s Director-General, told newsmen on telephone that the commission was engaging multinationals on the benefits of listing on the NSE.
According to him, the companies, contrary to other opinions, would only be wooed to be listed and not by compulsion.
Adindu said that there were no subsisting enabling laws to compel any company or multinationals to be quoted at the NSE.
Alhaji Rasheed Yussuf, the immediate past President, Association of Stock broking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON), said that the listing of the multinationals would enhance the country’s pension funds and leverage the number of investible stocks in the market.
Yussuf said that their listings would enhance the participation of Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) in the market.
According to him, the effect of pension funds would be visible in the market through listing of multinationals such as MTN Nigeria Communication Ltd, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Globacom Nigeria Ltd and Airtel Nigeria Ltd, among others.
Yussuf also said that most PFAs had reduced their exposure in the market since 2008, following global financial meltdown to minimise loss due to fewer blue chip companies.
He said that the PFAs would be forced to increase their exposure in the market with the listing of more blue chip companies on the exchange.
Yussuf said that pension funds in the market would be in the range of 13 per cent compared with approved limit of 50 per cent endorsed by the Pension Commission (PenCom).
It would be recalled that government recently increased the exposure of pension funds’ investment in equities to 50 per cent from 25 per cent of assets in November 2012.
The hike in pension funds exposure in the capital market, most stakeholders said would boost daily transactions in stocks.