2019 Africa Capital Markets Watch
Overview
Welcome to PwC’s Africa Capital Markets Watch 2019, our fifth annual publication examining both African DCM and ECM transactions, and sixth annual publication on ECM transactions.
ECM transactions included in our report comprise capital raising activities, whether initial public offerings (IPOs) or further offers (FOs), by African companies on exchanges worldwide and those made by non-African companies on African exchanges.
DCM transactions analysed include non-local currency debt funding raised by African companies and public institutions, whether high-yield or investment grade.
African equity markets
Overall ECM activity in 2019 declined in value and volume by 44% and 29% respectively, compared to 2018.
The decline was mainly related to activity in Africa, where the total ECM activity dropped by 69% in terms of value and 46% in terms of volume compared to 2018, and where the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Africa’s largest bourse, saw no capital raised via IPOs during the year.
Efforts to privatise state-owned entities continue to drive capital markets activity across the continent
Governments continued to turn to domestic capital markets in 2019 to gain alternative sources of funding and as a way to deepen the liquidity of and increase investor participation in local markets. Announcements in Ethiopia, Angola, Ghana and Malawi, to name a few, suggest this trend will continue in 2020 and beyond.
Development of sustainable finance initiatives
Following the introduction of green bond frameworks in Nigeria and Kenya, and the launch of a market development programme by Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority in 2018, corporate green bonds (the proceeds of which are used to finance eligible projects aimed at reducing companies’ environmental footprint) have since been issued in both countries in 2019. The JSE also hosts the continent’s largest concentration of green bonds, with a market capitalisation of over $450 million.