West Africa bourse plans to list Mali's main mobile operator

West Africa's BRVM Bourse plans to list Mali's leading telecoms operator Sotelma and a regional banking group this year, its Chief Executive told Reuters on Wednesday. He declined to name the banking group because the details had not yet been finalised. Sotelma, formerly Mali's state-owned monopoly but now 51-49 percent split between Maroc Telecom and the Malian government, is its leading mobile operator and the main competitor to France's Orange.
"We are certain to list two companies on the bourse this year. They include Societe Telecom du Mali (Sotelma) and a regional bank group in the sub-region," Edoh Kossi Amenounve told Reuters. The regional bourse trades shares from 45 companies from some of the nine countries in the CFA zone, including Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Togo, and Ivory Coast. Amenounve said the Bourse had been speaking to governments in the CFA franc currency zone about plans to issue diaspora bonds to fund social and economic projects.