Information reaching norvanreports indicate, the scheduled launching of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Agyapa Royalties on the London and Ghana Stock Exchanges has been suspended.
The suspension of the IPO launch is contained in a letter signed by the Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu Boahene and addressed to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
The decision to suspend the IPO launch by the Finance Ministry, is in accordance to a request by the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, to conduct corruption-risk assessment of the Agyapa Royalties deal.
The Ministry does not intend to proceed with the IPO ahead of the results of the corruption risk assessment by your Office, the international investor community has been closely monitoring the outcome of the current state of the transaction, and, it would, therefore, be detrimental to proceed without receiving the necessary approvals and green light from your Office. Additionally, we will be required to fully disclose in the prospectus to the transaction, the outcome of any investigation by your office prior to approval by the respective regulators of stock exchanges in Ghana and the United Kingdom,
the letter to the OSP said.
The Special Prosecutor, Mr Martin Amidu, wrote to the Ministry of Finance a few weeks ago, instructing the Ministry to hold on with the launch of the IPO until his office had been provided with all the relevant documents and information needed to complete his corruption risk assessment of the agreement.
Mr Amidu, in the letter to the ministry, said there were some outstanding documents which had not been provided to him by the Finance Ministry concerning the IPO, even though some other documents had been made available to him upon request.
Information and documents relating to the identification and recommendation by the transaction advisors to your Ministry for appointment a list of other services providers and or underwriters that may be required to complete the transaction as provided in clause 2.2.1 of the mandate agreement amongst others, that are critical to any thorough corruption risk assessment are outstanding.
The legal opinions particularly of the principal legal advisor to the government under the Constitution are relevant to ensure compliance with her recommendations as part of any corruption risk assessment.
This Office wishes to urge you to abide by the results of the corruption risk assessment it is undertaking on the transaction before moving to the launching of the IPO transaction.
This Office makes this suggestion on the grounds of prudence on your part and to also not give the impression that the mandate of this Office on prevention of corruption is of no consequence to the transaction,
parts of the OSP’s letter to the Finance Ministry read.
The Agyapa Royalties deal, meant to monetise Ghana’s gold royalties, has attracted a lot of controversy since it was passed by Parliament.
Several Civil Society Organizations (CSO) in the country have called for a national discourse on the deal to ascertain whether the deal is to the benefit of the Ghanaian populace or not, as most CSOs and particularly the Minority Caucus in Parliament believe the country will be shortchanged in the deal.
