African Domestic Bond Fund enters Botswana market

BAKANG TIRO

editors@thepatriot.co.bw

Mauritius’s leading foreign securities public company – African Domestic Bond Fund (ADBF) – has listed on the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) of local bourse Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE).

The ETF listing by ADBF is anticipated to boost local market liquidity as well as grow the economy.

Speaking at the listing ceremony on Thursday in Gaborone, BSE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Thapelo Tsheole underscored that ADBF’s listing shows that the bourse is highly attractive.

According to Tsheole, the BSE has proven to be resilient amidst difficult trading environment.

He is adamant that the arrival of the Triple A rated listing would enhance BSE competitiveness.

“Bringing this ETF listing in Botswana stock market will increase liquidity in the market. It will also enable local investors to have access to instruments. ETF value in Botswana cumulatively reached P2.5 billion and we anticipate more growth as the ADBF list on the stock exchange,” he said.

For his part, African Development Bank Principal Investment Officer-Capital Markets, Albin Kakou said the African Development Bank through the ADBF intends to boost African economies.

Kakou noted that the fund has only been listed with Mauritius Stock Exchange since its inception.

“Listing with Botswana Stock Exchange means a lot towards Botswana’s economy. This fund will help increase access to finance in the stock market and will broaden the local financial system. Our mandate as Africa Development Bank is to boost capital markets in Africa markets,” he said.

ADBF is a foreign debt securities Collective Investment Schemes structured as an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF),which aims to track in a cost-efficient manner the performance of the AfDB/AFMISM Bloomberg® African Bond Index 25% Capped (the “Index”) – Ticker BADBC – before fees and expenses, by investing principally in the sovereign bonds of African countries.

With ADBF listing on BSE, it strategically does not invest in all the bonds but seeks to achieve its investment objective by employing a “stratified sampling” the approach to match the Index’s characteristics and returns by investing in a well-diversified portfolio that represents the Index.

The Fund is managed by the Mauritius Commercial Bank Group (MCM). It was launched in partnership with the African Development Bank and listed on Mauritius Stock Exchange in 2018.

Yadav Abhimanyu, MCB Investment Management Head of Fixed Income and Currencies, said the development of the local capital markets across Africa is important as they boost growth.

He noted that the fund has been listed on Mauritius Stock Exchange in US Dollars, adding that its value has been growing in leaps and bounds surpassing some of US Government listed bonds.

Moreover, he said the fund will strengthen the Pula currency as well as   others across Africa. The local stock exchange as part of attracting listings launched Investor Compensation Fund.

The BSE Investor Compensation Fund has been established to amongst other things grant compensation to investors for financial losses suffered as a result of a participant failure to meet their contractual needs and it is targeting the retail investors.