By Peter OBIORA & Opeyemi Issa InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Monday unveiled new listing rules pegging Alternative Securities Market (ASEM) application at N300, 000 and Mainboard N4.2 million.

Taba Peterside, General Manager (GM) Listing, Sales & Rentention of the Nigeria’s Exchange said this at an interactive session with Capital Market Journalists at the Stock Exchange House in Lagos Nigeria.

Peterside said application for new or additional listing on the Alternative Securities Market is N100,000 and an Annual Fee of N200,000 flat. “Total Fee for new listing on Alternative Securities Market is N300,000 flat” she said.

She affirmed that Annual Listing Fees of Companies on the Mainboard is 0.3% of value of the application; which for some big and well capitalised Firms is about N4.2 million. “Now this is half of what it was before 0.6%, in addition to that, Companies pay an Annual Listing Fee based on the Company’s overall Market Capitalisation” said.

According to Peterside, it became necessary for the Nigeria’s Exchange to review its rules inline with the new Management’s agenda. “This is to make sure that we remain current and relevant towards our different stakeholders; the listed and prospective Companies seeking listing on the Nigeria’s Exchange” Peterside said.

She affirmed that the review was done bearing in mind the above, “we consulted widely with various groups in the Market; these includes the Stockbrokers, prospective Issuers, Issuing Houses and other stakeholders” she said.

Another two (2) important criteria for admission on the Mainboard she unveiled includes; at least 20% of share capital must be offered to the public (secondary dual listings require that at least 10% of share capital be offered to the Nigerian public); the number of shareholders of the company must not be less than 300.

While on the Alternative Securities Market, the public shall hold a minium of 15% of each class of Equity Securities.

On operating track record, she said for the Mainboard, Companies must have been in operation for at least three (3) instead of the previous five (5) years, while on the Alternative Securities Market; Companies must have been in operation for at least two (2) years.

In the same vein, Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigeria’s Exchange said there were no waivers in the new listing rules of the NSE; but global best practices were added to the listing requirements.

According to him, best listing practices from other world class Stock Exchanges; like the New York, London, Johannesburg, Singapore, NASDAQ and the Malaysian Stock Exchanges were taken to make up for the new listing requirements of the NSE.

“There was no waiver, we benchmarked every listing standard with other world class Exchanges, and we sought the global best practices and took the best out of each of these Exchanges.

“For the operating track record, three is the global standard and not the five years we had” he said.