GRi BEF News Ghana
02 - 10 - 2001
Cocobod signs US$300m facility for 2001/2002 Cocoa purchases
Accra Bourse Index makes modest gains
Accra (Greater Accra) 02 October 2001 - The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on Monday signed a 300 million-dollar receivable- backed trade finance facility from a group of eleven international banks to purchase cocoa for the 2001/2002 marketing season.
A statement issued by the Ghana High Commission in London on Monday said the facility, co-arranged by Barclays Bank and the Standard Chartered Bank is the ninth successive loan facility organised by international financial banks for the Board.
It said an amount of 260 million dollars that was raised under similar arrangements last year has been fully repaid.
Mr Kwame Sarpong, Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, said in spite of the reduction of the facility from 350 million dollars to 260 million in the previous year, occasioned by a record fall of cocoa prices, the facility was smoothly administered without any serious hitches.
He congratulated the banks "for not only winning their mandate this year but also for successfully arranging the syndication in such trying and difficult time" and gave the assurance that the banks' confidence would not be misplaced because it would guard their hard won reputation as a first class borrower.
He suggested that future arrangement be completed in September to enable the Board to open the season early in order to reduce the financial strain on the country's farmers.
He paid tributes to the hardworking farmers for their commitment to the production of good quality cocoa beans, the allied agencies and the government for their support to improve the economy of Ghana.
Mr Isaac Osei, Ghana's High Commissioner to the UK, noted that the confidence demonstrated by the banks would ginger the cocoa farmers to strive for greater heights.
"It will also go a long way to strengthen the efforts of government to create a conducive atmosphere for trade and investment in the country."
He expressed the hope that investors would take advantage of the favourable climate and invest in the country.
The High Commissioner gave the assurance that government's future policies on the external marketing of cocoa would be to their mutual benefit and expressed the hope that the partnership would further be deepened and diversified in future.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 02 October 2001 - The Ghana Stock Exchange had a breather on Monday when Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC), Patterson Zochonis (PZ), Unilever Ghana Limited (UNIL) and Mechanical Lloyd (MLC) made gains to lift the GSE-All Share index up.
The benchmark index, which slumped 7.96 points on Friday, rose 3.22 points to finish 959.26 points, although market activities opened on a dull note.
Traded volumes declined from a high of 549,900 shares to 36,000 shares as institutional investors continued to shy away from the market.
Guinness Ghana Limited led the pack, selling 18,800 shares while nine other equities that made sales could only manage 17,200 shares.
There were four positive price changes. EIC gained 50 cedis at 2,950, UNIL made 50 cedis at 2,150 cedis, MLC was up two cedis at 142 cedis and PZ went up 100 cedis at 1,000 cedis.
Market capitalisation was up marginally at 3,910.46 billion cedis from 3,904.20 billion cedis at the previous close.
Below are the closing prices of the listed equities in cedis:
ABL 320
AGC 18,800
ALW 4,300
BAT 600
CFAO 60
EIC 2,950 +50
FML 1,000
GBL 1,300
GCB 1,550
GGL 900
HFC 952
MGL 240
MLC 142 +2
MOGL 20,000
PAF 800
PBC 450
PZ 1,000 +100
SCB 20,500
SPPC 297
SSB 2,300
UNIL 2,150 +50
CMLT 430
GRi../
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