By Silvia Nyambura
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has bought 121,820,850 more shares of power utility company Umeme Limited at a price of Ushs 488 per share. This translates to an additional investment of about Ushs 59.4 billion in the company effectively increasing the Fund`s total stake to 23% (373,771,921 shares) from 15.5% (251,951,071 shares).
This follows an announcement last week by the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) that it had approved an application for voluntary suspension of trading on the Umeme counter with effect from today Monday, 7th November 2016 to and including 15th November 2016. According to the notice, Umeme Holdings Limited, which has a 14.3% stake in the company as at July 2016, was contemplating a sale of its shares.
In a statement seen by this magazine, NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba said, “In line with our statutory mandate to judiciously invest NSSF members’ savings and our Investments Strategy, we have reached an agreement to buy Umeme shares at Ushs 488 per share. These have been obtained at a 7% discount given share price of Ushs 525 before suspension of trading, which is Ushs 4.5 billion discount on the total transaction.
