Morocco’s Casablanca Stock Exchange (www.casablanca-bourse.com) is offering grants to small and medium enterprises to encourage them to raise capital. It is offering up to 500,000 MAD (approximately $63,740 at current exchange rate for Moroccan Dirhams) from 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2012. According to an announcement on the bourse’s website, the offer is because of important role played by SMEs in the development of the Moroccan economy.
The grant is given under certain conditions and the SME must be listed on the stock exchange’s Growth or Development boards and have equity of less than 50 million MAD. It also needs to issue at least 20% of its capital and to use the IPO to raise capital. Normally the cost of an IPO is 2.2%-5% of the capital raised and the stock exchange says this can be a barrier to raising more capital.

First listing for 2011
STROC Industrie S.A. (www.stroc.com) on 30 June became the first new listing on the Casablanca Stock Exchange in 2011. The company had planned to offer 288,515 extra shares at MAD357.00 each, raising a total of MAD 102,999,855 ($13 mn), with the offer dates from 20-22 June. However the offer attracted 7,229 bids for a total of 2,515,369 shares, 8.7 times oversubscribed, and was closed on 21 June.
STROC joins the “Engineering and Industrial Equipment” sector. Société de Travaux de Réalisations d’Ouvrages et de Construction Industrielle was founded in 1989. Al Istimrar Holdings has 57.7% of the shares and Nabil Ziatt a further 14.6% while the free float on the stock exchange is 23.1%. The company said it chose to raise capital for its development through the capital market as part of its strategy to be open and transparent to its customers and the financial community. It will use the capital to expand its plant and equipment and build a new headquarters.