MCB Capital Markets Lists ‘ADBF’ On Botswana Stock Exchange

MCB Capital Markets, on Thursday, announced the secondary listing of the African Domestic Bond Fund (ADBF), a USD-denominated Exchange Traded Fund, on the Botswana Stock Exchange.

The fund’s primary purpose is to promote the development of local currency capital markets in Africa by giving investors access to Pan African local currency government bonds through a transparent, cost effective and liquid vehicle. ADBF was launched in September 2018 with a primary listing on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius, and managed MCB Investment Management, the asset management arm of  MCB Group. African Development Bank (AfDB) is the anchor investor and sponsor of ADBF.

African local currency debt is a fast-growing asset class, the market capitalization of which reached almost US$1 trillion in August 2022. Based on USD total return, the asset class has outperformed its global fixed income peers, including US Treasuries, US Investment Grade Bonds, US High Yield and USD Emerging Markets over a 1-year, 3-year and 5-year period. The fund’s cumulative USD total return as at 31^st August 2022 was 27.6% and 51.6% in BWP.

Stefan Nalletamby, Director of the African Development Bank’s Financial Sector Development Department, said: “This listing on the BSE is a very positive development as the local asset status of the fund will enable Botswana’s institutional investors to invest in the fund as part of their domestic allocations. This listing aligns with our mandate to develop capital markets products across our Regional Member Countries.”

Rony Lam, Chief Executive Officer – MCB Capital Markets, commented: “The secondary listing of the ADBF on the BSE is another important milestone in the evolution of the fund. We are confident that the strong performance track record and dual listing of the ADBF will attract further interest from investors in the African local currency fixed income asset class.”
Abhimanyu Yadav, Head of Fixed Income and Currencies at MCB Capital Markets, commented: “We are excited with our first cross-listing across African exchanges for the ADBF and recognize and appreciate the hard work and dedication by various teams in bringing this to fruition. This is an important achievement, in line with our partnership with the AfDB to develop and improve African capital markets and provide greater transparency and access for investors to them.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Mauritius Commercial Bank Ltd (MCB)