(Business in Cameroon) - State company Aéroports du Cameroun announced it is entering the regional stock market (Bvmac), becoming the first state-owned company to do so.

The decision is aimed at “strengthening the company’s equity to better meet investment needs over the next five years, and improving its financial and operational performance," we learn in a notice of call for expression of interest published on January 31, 2023. ADC says it is now looking for a broker to help in the IPO process. The selected broker will "assist the listing management team in the development of a complete diagnosis of ADC SA, determine the company’s compliance with IPO conditions, and supervise the IPO process itself under the legal and regulatory provisions in force”. In a report on ADC's FY2021 financial statements, the auditing firm KPMG Central Africa found some "anomalies", including in the inventory management, software and human resources management, as well as fraud and over-invoicing. The broker will therefore help highlight address these anormalies.

Let's note that the IPO decision follows the disclosure on September 8 last year by the Minister of Finance of a list of four public and mixed capital companies (including ADC) chosen by the State of Cameroon to boost the sub-regional financial market.

In 2019, ADC posted a net profit of CFA6.7 billion, coming after CNPS, the public pension fund, in the top 5 public companies with the highest profits that year. However, the following year, this profit turned into a dry loss of CFA7 billion due to the Covid-induce 62% drop in international air traffic.

Brice R. Mbodiam