Troubled Atlas Suspends Trading on UK Bourse

Loss-making firm Atlas African Industries Ltd was suspended from trading on Monday after its nominated advisor (Nomad), Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited, resigned for undisclosed reasons.

The firm, which is dual-listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market and Nairobi Securities Exchange’s Growth Enterprise Market Segment, said the suspension will continue until it hires a new Nomad.

Among other roles, a Nomad advises its clients on their listing obligations including compliance with the Capital Markets (Securities, Public Offers, Listing and Disclosure) Regulations, 2002.

“If a replacement Nomad is not appointed within one month of today’s date, admission of the company’s shares to trading on AIM will be cancelled,” Atlas said in a statement Monday.

It was not immediately clear whether the suspension also applies to the NSE. The loss-making firm has had a troubled short history since listing on the Nairobi bourse in December 2014, losing money as it transformed from an oil and gas logistics firm in Kenya to a glass bottle manufacturer in Ethiopia and finally to buying a stake in a Nigerian betting firm. Its share price, currently at 1.05 shillings, represents a major rout from the listing offer price of 11.5 shillings.

Market activity kicked off the week on a lower note as all the indices closed the day on Monday in the red.

The NSE 20 Share index lost 0.74 percent from its previous value to end the day at 3243.68 points while the NASI dropped by a marginal 0.83 percent to 136.39 points from 137.53 points on Friday.

The NSE 25 Share index decreased by 1.14 percent to settle at 3602.11 points. Market capitalization fell to 1975.967 billion shillings from 1992.481 billion shillings before, whilst equity turnover was down to 0.24 billion shillings from 0.40 billion shillings previously due to a slide in the number of shares traded.

CURRENCIES:

The Kenyan shilling was stable on Monday as it traded at a mean of KES 101.36 compared to an average of 101.35 shillings for last week Friday having been supported by portfolio investors looking to buy government debt.

The local currency steadied against both the Sterling and the Euro with the former showing signs of a slight recovery owing to a host of data sets coming out from both within the UK and outside of it, with the positive or negative nature of the information set to sway the value of the currency attached to that particular economy. We may finally see some of the positive news coming out of the UK economy begin to register on the currency markets.