In the April 17 edition of the Business Guardian, under the headline Should Phoenix Park IPO be delayed, the proposition was advanced that there was no need for the Minister of Finance, Larry Howai, to push back the Government's offering of shares in the producer of natural gas liquids, while it resolved the outstanding issues surrounding the First Citizens initial public offering (IPO).
That piece concluded by stating: "In the context of Phoenix Park's profitability and its dividend potential for ordinary individual investors, it surely would be 'cruel and unusual punishment' for Mr Howai...to delay the company's IPO beyond June."
By a happy coincidence–and surely not as a result of the commentary–the view put forward in this space last month seems to be shared by the Minister of Finance, as he indicated in an interview in the waiting room of the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday morning:
Q: In terms of IPOs, you are on record as saying that the IPO thrust is on hold until the First Citizens issues are resolved. When do you expect that to be?
A: That's an important question because the issue of IPOs and the development of the local capital markets is important.
This was our first IPO and we readily admit there were some things that should have been done differently and better. One of the things we did not do is set internal limits for the staff.
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