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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

■ RWANDA: Government planning to bring forward Rwandair's IPO to this year?

RwandAirRwanda is expecting to float two state-owned companies, the Commercial Bank of Rwanda (BCR) and national carrier, RwandAir (WB), on the country's fledgling stock market soon, the head of Rwanda's Capital Market Authority (CMA), Robert Mathu has said.

Rwandair 737-800NG
Rwandair 737-800NG (Rwandair)
Speaking to Reuters, Mr Mathu said:
"BCR is the one that's certainly close. We also expect RwandAir to come to the market soon," Mathu told Reuters late on Friday.
Should RwandAir indeed be floated this year, it would come a full five years ahead of the previously announced date of an IPO (2018-2020) which CEO John Mirenge said was necessary in order to allow Rwandair to generate a profit and thus render itself more appealing to the prospective investor.

Government is also in the process of finalizing a USD350million bond, part of which will be used to help finance the regional carrier's ambitious expansion scheme which, it hopes, will take it to Europe and China.