BNA Assurances Makes Debut on Tunis Stock Exchange, Marking a New Era for the Market
BNA Assurances has officially listed on the Tunis Stock Exchange, bringing the total number of listed companies to 75. This milestone marks the end of a three-year drought in new listings and is expected to encourage other companies to follow suit.
According to Bilel Sahnoun, General Manager of the Tunis Stock Exchange, this operation presents several advantages. Firstly, it involves a strategic sector for the Tunisian economy: insurance. This sector continues to grow and plays a crucial role in collecting national savings, particularly long-term savings, which need to be reinforced. The listing of BNA Assurances enriches the insurance index and increases the number of sector companies present on the exchange.
Another important aspect is shareholding. Formerly a mutual company under the name AMI, BNA Assurances has around 50,000 shareholders who were not initially stock market investors. Their arrival on the market represents significant potential for financial intermediaries and the entire stock exchange. The goal is to encourage them to diversify their portfolios beyond BNA Assurances shares.
Looking ahead, Bilel Sahnoun outlines three main objectives for the Tunis Stock Exchange. The first is to diversify the offering by going beyond stocks and bonds, developing index-based products, guaranteed return products, derivatives, and even commodities-linked assets. The second objective is to attract a new category of investors by offering less risky and more secure products. Finally, the third objective aims to increase the size and liquidity of the market to attract more companies and institutional investors.
According to him, these developments require a deep-seated reform of the regulatory framework to enable the Tunis Stock Exchange to gain visibility and appear on the radar of international investors.
