Ghana: Guinness Ghana to launch rights issue as beer market is improving

Guinness Ghana will launch a rights issue within 12 months to raise 70 million cedis, Reuters reported on June, 14.

Some 40 million cedis generated from the issue would go toward debt, with most of the remainder for capital projects, Robert Pilkington, the firm's finance director, told reporters after a shareholders meeting in Accra.

"As we see, that level of debt is restrictive on the company's ability to really deliver on it's future growth opportunities it sees in Ghana," he said of debt currently totalling 70 million cedis.

Ghana's Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to approve the rights issue within eight weeks, and the move will be completed by June 2012, Pilkington said.

Managing Director Ekwunife Okoli said the company would focus on marketing its products and brands and added the Ghanaian beer market was improving after the government lowered an excise duty by two percent earlier this year.

15 June, 2011