Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has concluded arrangement to expand its product offerings via the official listing of Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund in March 2014.
The executive director in charge of business development at the NSE, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, who disclosed this over the weekend, said that the Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund (VG 30 ETF) is an open-ended fund that will be listed on the Exchange.
According to him, “the VG 30 ETF is designed to track the performance of the constituent companies of the NSE 30 Index and to replicate the price and yield performance of the Index. The NSE 30 Index comprises of the top 30 companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalization and liquidity and is a price index weighted by adjusted market capitalization”.
Speaking further he said “in order to provide an alternative investment window for investors, the first ETF was launched on the Nigeria bourse in December 2011. We are using the ETF product category to open up cost-effective diversification opportunities for investors, while giving the broker-dealer community an instrument to better service their clientele.”
This listing of the VG 30 ETF according to him anticipated to help advance the investor market in Africa’s fastest growing economy by further broadening the choice of asset classes open to local investors.
Speaking about the new ETF, the Exchange’s product lead for ETFs, Mr Osahon Aire, said “ETFs are essentially index funds that are listed and traded on the Exchange like shares. Buying and selling ETFs is as simple as buying /selling of shares. Unlike shares and mutual funds however, the ETFs will trade continuously all day long and allow investors to lock in a price for the underlying stocks immediately, rather than being bought and sold based on end-of-day prices”
The managing director of Vetiva Fund Managers Limited, Mr. Damilola Ajayi said “in line with the growing ETF industry, Vetiva developed the VG 30ETF to give investors optimal exposure to the Nigerian bourse by tracking the movement of the NSE 30 index.
The offer for subscription of 100,000,000 units of the Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Securities commenced on Monday, 13 January 2014 and closed on Friday, 31 January 2014”.
“Further to the successful completion of the offer, we expect that the VG30 ETF securities will be listed on the floors of the Nigerian Stock Exchange by March 2014” said the Vetiva chief.
