Uganda's Centenary Group to list 5%-10% stake on local bourse

Uganda's Centenary Group, the holding parent for Centenary Bank said on Tuesday it planned to list between 5% and 10% of its shareholding on the local stock exchange.

Two of the group's shareholders intend to exit "soon" and their shares would be up for sale, Brenda Magoba, its company secretary and head of legal affairs, told a conference in Kampala.

"The Group intends to list on the Uganda stock exchange some shares may be 5-10% depending on what will be approved," she said.

She did not give an indication of when the listing will happen, nor give details of who the shareholders exiting were.

Centenary Bank is one of the biggest in Uganda's banking industry and has assets worth 7.1 trillion Ugandan shillings ($1.94 billion) and serves 3.1 million customers.

The group also has a business in the information communication and technology sector and others.

It is currently majority-owned by Ugandan Catholic dioceses, with minority shareholding by some European funds, including France's Solidarity International Development Investment (SIDI).

If it lists, it would mean the group's banking unit would be joining five other banks, including Uganda's largest, Stanbic (SBU.UG) which is a unit of South Africa's Standard Bank Group, in the industry that are also listed on the exchange.

The last IPO on the Ugandan bourse was in 2023 for Airtel Uganda which was selling 20% of its stake.

($1 = 3,664.0000 Ugandan shillings)