The partnership between the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges — which makes it easy for a company with a primary listing in London to get a secondary listing in Johannesburg — prompted Vivo Energy to also hold an initial public offering (IPO) on the JSE in May. In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Vivo CEO Christian Chammas and chief financial officer Johan Depraetere said the JSE listing was unrelated to the Engen transaction whereby the group would add more than 300 service stations to its network outside SA. The IPO was prompted by Vivo’s owners Vitol and Helios wanting to sell a portion of their shares. Under the London Stock Exchange’s rules, a minimum of 25% of a company’s shares must be "free float" owned by the public. "This 25% minimum is combined for London and Johannesburg, so our primary motive for listing on both stock exchanges is to improve liquidity. But as an African-focused group, it is also attractive for us to be listed on the largest stock exchange in Afri...

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