Get in on the ground floor

OTC trading starts on Channel Life privately held shares…

On 1 June Channel Lifeprivately listed a portion of the company’s ordinary shares, as a forerunner to a public listing on the JSE Securities Exchange in 2007.

Channel Life CEO René Otto says that there is bound to be a high level of interest as smart individuals scramble to get in on the ground level to take a stake in the country’s most ‘Africanised’ life insurer.

In order to make the stake accessible to all, Otto says that there will be a cap on the number of shares that any one individual or institution can hold. “We want everyone to have the opportunity to buy a stake in our business,” says Otto.

The private listing will also provide a “soft landing” for their (Channel Life) eventual public listing, because many of the rules and regulations of a formal listing will be applied. “It should also give us a fair idea of the open market value of the company, as a natural market of willing buyers and sellers will be created.”

The private listing and trading in the over the counter shares will be managed by PSG-online, the country’s largest non-institutional stock broker. Shares can also be bought through the offices of PSG Konsult.

There are charges, consisting of the customary regulatory charge of the value of the trade, and a brokers’ fee payable to PSG Konsult/Online.