A new investment firm, Afinitas yesterday listed 213 million shares at P1 per share on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) despite its Initial Public Offer (IPO) being heavily under-subscribed.

The listing followed an IPO and private placement in which the company sold 2.7 million shares and 91.2 million shares respectively. Under the IPO, less than 10 percent of the shares on offer were subscribed for as Afinitas had floated 28.8 million to the public. Local fund managers, African Alliance, Investec and Afena Capital participated in the private placement, giving them a respective 25 percent, 7.5 percent and 5.5 percent shareholding in Afinitas. Afinitas Limited Executive Director, Leutlwetse Tumelo told Mmegi Business that despite the under–subscription, the IPO had performed well as 275 individual shareholders participated. “The key thing for us was to have a shareholder spread of 75 which is a minimum requirement for BSE. In fact, we have achieved that as 275 shareholders applied for a total of 2. 7 million shares,” he said. Tumelo added that whichever amount of money that came in during the IPO was a bonus because they had already received huge investment money for the private placement, which is what the company needed. According to Tumelo, they intend to penetrate the African market, citing that Botswana has the skills and money to invest in Africa and bring the profits home. “We are looking at Africa as a market; we have raised the money here and we are going to deploy the money in Africa and grow Botswana’s presence in Africa. “We have the skills and the finance. All we need is to take that to Africa as there are plenty of opportunities, ”said Tumelo. In the last two months, Afinitas raised approximately P92 million through a private placement. The funds will be deployed to achieve the pan-African investment strategy. Currently, Afinitas is working on its first project, the Africa financial investment conference. For his part, Afinitas Limited Chairman Lesang Magang said the company is based in Botswana because of the flexible business environment and will help local businesses penetrate the African market. “This means that a lot of institutions or individuals can now use us as a vehicle to invest in a country miles away as we are able to spread their investment risk through this vehicle,” he added. Furthermore, Magang said Afinitas would pursue a pan- African investment strategy and take advantage of investment opportunities across Africa as they have a view to generate returns for their shareholders. Afinitas was incorporated in May 2014, and accredited to the Botswana IFSC in December 2014, which Magang said was an important step in the development of the company and is expected to be very beneficial to the shareholders. “The listing is another significant milestone in the company and gives a platform for more investors to participant in the growth of the company,” he added. Currently Afinitas directors include Tumelo, Magang, Dawn Pickering and managing director, Rupert McCammon, the current beneficial owner of the Africa Financial Successful Investment Conference (AFSIC).