Ivory Coast's Presidential Vote May Boost Market Interest, BRVM Head Says

Ivory Coast’s presidential election, currently planned for Oct. 31, may encourage investors to put their money in the West African regional bourse based in the country, its president said.

Share prices on the Abidjan-based Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres “did not react” when the election date, which had been postponed repeatedly since President Laurent Gbagbo’s mandate expired in 2005, was announced, said Jean-Paul Gillet.

“Being listed on the BRVM is considered a risky choice at the moment,” he said in an interview in the commercial capital yesterday. The market needs “the trust to be back” to lure investors and companies to list, he said.

The exchange’s Composite Index, which covers companies listed in eight West African francophone countries and Guinea- Bissau, has risen 10 percent this year and advanced 1.3 percent after the election date was announced on Aug. 5, according to Bloomberg data.

“We are all waiting for the elections,” Gillet said.

Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is still divided into a government-administered south and a rebel- controled north following an army mutiny and civil unrest in 2002. The election has been repeatedly delayed amid difficulties in drawing up a voters’ list and attempts to integrate the rebel Forces Nouvelles into the national army.

Felicien Sekongo, a spokesman for the Forces Nouvelles, said Aug. 30 they are “satisfied” with a decision by the electoral commission to halt hearing disputes over the roster.

Burkina Faso telecommunications company Onatel SA and Societe Generale’s Ivorian unit SGBCI SA are some of the largest companies listed on the Abidjan exchange, according to the bourse’s website.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olivier Monnier in Abidjan via Accra at ebowers1@bloomberg.net.

• Tweet
• More
  • Business Exchange
  • Buzz up!
  • Digg
• Print
• Email