The Nairobi Stock Exchange, helped by Sri Lanka’s MillenniumIT’s Automated Trading System Millennium Exchange, successfully held its biggest Initial Public Offering (IPO) when shares in Kenya’s Safaricom were traded. Safaricom is the mobile arm of Kenya Telecom and has been a very profitable company, historically. This has been the biggest IPO in East Africa, so far, the Sri Lankan company said in a statement.

“The IPO and subsequent trading activity highlights the depth and liquidity of our market and the potential that is yet to be tapped for infrastructure upgrades and development within Kenya and the region. It also highlights the robustness of the NSE trading infrastructure, sourced from MillenniumIT of Sri Lanka,” the local company said quoting a press release from the Nairobi exchange.

MillenniumIT deployed its Automated Trading System at the Nairobi Stock Exchange in September 2006, while its Central Securities Depository (CSD) for Kenya has been operating in a live environment since November 2004. MillenniumIT systems power all the stock exchanges in East Africa, comprising the Nairobi Stock Exchange, Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and the Uganda Securities Exchange.“Given the capacity of our systems, we are definitely geared to support future growth of the Nairobi Stock Exchange to facilitate its growth as a leader in Capital Markets in the East African region,” said Jit Seneviratne, Head of Business Development at MillenniumIT. .