3 IPOs in 6 months add GH¢11bn to GSE market cap

… as listing revival gathers pace

By Ebenezer Chike Adjei NJOKU

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) is on course to record its most active period of primary equity issuance in nearly a decade, with three initial public offerings in the space of six months set to add around GH¢10.88 billion to the exchange’s total market capitalisation. Together these three listings account for approximately 4 percent to the market cap.

First Atlantic Bank PLC listed in December 2025 at GH¢7.30 per share, raising GH¢742.2 million in an oversubscribed offer. ZEN Petroleum Holdings PLC followed in March 2026, raising GH¢640 million at GH¢5.00 per share.

Kasapreko PLC, the largest indigenous beverage manufacturer, opened its offer on May 4 and is targeting up to GH¢700 million from the sale of 583 million ordinary shares at GH¢1.20 each, with the offer closing on June 1.

Public sentiment on the rise

Public sentiment and early market signals suggest the offer may be oversubscribed, which would bring the combined capital raised across the three transactions to approximately GH¢2.1 billion and lift total market capitalisation to an estimated GH¢290 billion, positioning Kasapreko comfortably as the 12th largest company on the exchange by market cap as of May 7, 2026.

“Three IPOs within six months signals that confidence in the primary equity market is returning, and what makes it particularly noteworthy is that it comes barely two years after the domestic debt restructuring, when risk appetite was severely depressed.

“Both institutional and retail investors are now willing to re-engage with equity risk, and this level of issuance activity is something the market has not seen in close to a decade. In many ways, it marks the beginning of a normalisation cycle for Ghana’s capital markets,” Nana Agyei Opoku-Agyemang, Chief Executive of Black Star Brokerage, said.

The sentiments were similarly shared by Joshua Adagbe, a Senior Research and Compliance Analyst at Tesah Capital, who said: “This market dynamic reflects investors actively seeking diversification beyond traditional fixed-income investments in a low-yield environment, while simultaneously presenting companies with a compelling opportunity to access long-term capital through the bourse rather than relying solely on debt financing.”

The cluster of listings represents a tangible return on the Accra bourse’s sustained effort to attract domestic companies, particularly indigenous, privately held businesses, to the main board.

GSE Managing Director, Abena Amoah, speaking at First Atlantic’s listing ceremony, described the return of IPO activity as restoring the exchange to its core purpose.

The bourse’s strategy had, for several years, prioritised outreach to Ghanaian-owned companies that had historically favoured private financing or the bond market over equity listings, viewing the disclosure and governance requirements of a listed entity as burdensome relative to the benefits.

Kasapreko’s trajectory illustrates that shift. Founded in 1987 and best known for Alomo Bitters, the company made its first move toward the public capital markets in February 2024, raising GH¢351 million through two series of corporate bonds on the Ghana Fixed Income Market.

The IPO represents the next step, a full transition from family-controlled enterprise to public company, with the Adjei family’s Pinnacle Holding Company Limited giving way to a broader institutional and retail shareholder base for the first time in the company’s 38-year history.

“Kasapreko’s journey is a textbook example of how a privately held Ghanaian company can use the capital markets in stages to finance growth. Their bond issuance on the GFIM gave them access to medium-term funding while exposing the business to the reporting, governance and investor-relations disciplines of a public issuer, so that by the time they approached the equity market, the groundwork was already laid.

Moving from debt to equity is a natural progression for companies seeking patient capital, and this bond-to-equity pathway is one that many Ghanaian family-owned businesses can emulate to diversify their funding sources and unlock growth capital without relying solely on bank credit,” Mr. Opoku-Agyemang said.

The seven-year gap

The current burst of activity stands in sharp relief against the drought that preceded it. Before First Atlantic’s listing in December 2025, the GSE main board had gone 87 months, more than seven years, without a single IPO, the longest such stretch since trading began in 1990. Two secondary listings, Asante Gold (2022) and Atlantic Lithium (2024), occurred during the period, with no capital raised.

The last main-board offering before that was MTN Ghana’s landmark transaction in September 2018, itself driven largely by regulatory compulsion rather than organic market appetite.

The intervening years saw the COVID-19 pandemic suppressing valuations and risk appetite across 2020 and 2021. The sovereign debt crisis and the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme that followed in 2023 shattered confidence in domestic financial instruments more broadly, with equity market capitalisation stagnating between GH¢54 billion and GH¢74 billion from 2020 through 2023.

Several companies that had considered listings quietly shelved their plans, this has reversed following broad macroeconomic improvements.

State enterprise listings no show

One element of the GSE’s revival story remains conspicuously absent. Successive governments have periodically signalled an intention to list state-owned enterprises (SEOs) on the exchange, a move that analysts and market operators have long argued would deepen liquidity, broaden the investor base, and subject public companies to the governance discipline of continuous disclosure obligations. That commitment has not materialised.

Earlier this year, the Bank of Ghana inaugurated a joint regulatory committee — comprising leadership from the central bank, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), GSE, and the Ministry of Finance — to design a framework for listing commercial and state-linked banks.

However, the largest state-linked enterprises in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, and utilities remain entirely outside the public capital markets.

The exchange’s total listed issuer count stood at 38 in April 2026, compared with 36 a year earlier, a net addition of two, both from the private sector.

“Ghana’s State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) represent a significant untapped opportunity for capital market participation. Strategic restructuring and public listing of key SOEs, including Ghana Gas, Tema Oil Refinery, Ghana Airports Company, and Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, could unlock substantial long-term capital while strengthening national economic infrastructure,” Mr. Adagbe noted.

The Black Star Brokerage CEO noted that whilst the absence of SOE listings represents a missed opportunity, as some companies operated in sectors with strong cash-flow potential and could deepen the market if listed, the market, however, would not automatically reward an SOE simply because it intended to list.

“Investors will appraise any state-owned enterprise the same way they assess a private issuer, on fundamentals, governance, financial transparency, and strategic clarity. The challenge has always been institutional readiness.

Many SOEs still need to strengthen their financial reporting, improve operational efficiency, and adopt governance structures that meet continuous-disclosure standards. Until those gaps are addressed, listing becomes difficult, not because the market lacks appetite, but because the preparatory work has not been completed,” Mr. Opoku-Agyemang said.

“If even a handful of well-prepared SOEs were brought to market, it would materially expand the GSE’s market capitalisation, diversify sector representation, and improve liquidity. But the pathway requires deliberate restructuring, not just policy announcements,” he added.

April market performance

The GSE-CI closed April at 15,130.52, up 72.52 percent year-to-date, while the GSE Financial Stock Index reached 8,839.41, up 90.21 percent over the same period. Total market capitalisation rose to GH¢285.76 billion from GH¢135.97 billion in April 2025, a year-on-year increase of 110 percent.

Volume traded reached 60.9 million shares, up 166 percent year-on-year, while transaction value rose 157 percent to GH¢373.4 million. Individual transactions surged from 14,053 to 154,467, a near-tenfold increase pointing to meaningful retail participation alongside institutional flows. Year-to-date value traded stood at GH¢3.16 billion, against GH¢618 million in the same period of 2025.

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