Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, BMO Capital lead Agyapa Royalties IPO, official report confirms
An official report of the parliamentary debate on the Agyapa Royalties deal shows that all the transaction advisors were made known to Parliament
The official report of the parliamentary debate on the Agyapa gold royalties deal dated 14 August 2020 shows that all the transaction advisors who offered various forms of services during the preparation stages of the deal were made known to Parliament before the deal was approved.
Merrill Lynch International, BMO Capital Markets Ltd, JP Morgan Securities plc, Peel Hunt LLP and Tamesis Partners LLP, all of which are international transaction companies with high integrity and global recognition, were chosen by the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance after an exhaustive assessment and full disclosure to Parliament.
In essence, claims by the Minority in Parliament that the government did not make full disclosure of who the transaction advisors were in documents presented to the House cannot be factually accurate.
An official report of the parliamentary debate on 14 August sighted by Asaase News shows that Parliament knew all the transaction advisors, as all five agreements sent to the legislative chamber for approval bore the names of all three law firms written across the bottom of all the first pages.
The official report shows that the work of the lawyers (White & Case, Africa Legal Associates, and Bentsi-Enchill Letsa & Ankomah) was to draft the transaction agreements and navigate the legal contours of what has been described as a novel transaction made in Ghana.
Since the debate about the Agyapa Royalties deal broke out, the members of the Minority in Parliament have maintained that the deal is shrouded in secrecy and that not all individuals and organisations involved in it have been fully disclosed to the general public.
However, the official documents from Parliament suggest that full disclosure was made and that the Minority in Parliament may have missed the details provided by the government.
Ofori-Atta on Agyapa deal
The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has described the Agyapa Mineral Royalties Ltd arrangement as the best facility for managing Ghana’s gold. The government, he has said, is excited about the listing of Agyapa Royalties in London as the first company of that nature in Africa.
Last month, the Finance Minister lamented that a country such as Ghana, which has mined gold since the 15th century with the arrival of the Portuguese, cannot boast of any international listed company dealing in gold. The same can be said of cocoa, he noted.
Speaking to members of the press and civil society organisations, the Finance Minister further wondered why it was acceptable for a foreign investor who holds a concession to sell natural resources in the ground upfront but Ghana could not do same.
In an overview of the transaction last month, the government maintained that for centuries Ghana has not benefited much from its natural resources because value extraction usually ends at the point where these resources leave the country’s shores.
The Finance Minister said President Akufo-Addo is clear in his mind that the country needs to add considerable value to what it produces and trade using the nation’s resources, in order to achieve the “Ghana Beyond Aid” that it desires.
Wilberforce Asare / Asaase Radio
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