Raising the stakes While 2016 marked a challenging year for African equity markets due to lower economic growth, the past five years saw a total of 110 initial public offerings (IPOs) raising US$6.5 billion by African companies on exchanges worldwide, as well as non-African companies on African exchanges. PwC’s latest edition of its Africa Capital Markets Watch shows that over the same period, 340 further offers also raised US$38.4 billion on both African and international exchanges. According to an Asoko Insight report, the JSE remains the continent’s leader of African capital markets, with capital raised from IPOs representing 42% of total African IPO capital and 34% of the total number of transactions since 2012. In terms of value over the past five years, the next-largest value of IPO proceeds raised was on the Egyptian Exchange at US$1.1 billion, followed by the Nigerian Stock Exchange at US$751 million. 28 February 2017 Image: Gallo/Getty Images