Africa investor Index Series Awards shortlist announced

The Africa investor Index Series Awards are the only international, pan-African awards that recognise and reward institutional investors, stock exchanges, corporate governance, stockbrokers and capital market regulators across the continent. The short-listed candidates include: Deutsche Securities, Safaricom, JP Morgan, Zenith Bank, Citi, EFG Hermes, JSE Ltd, Bond Exchange S.A, Sasol, Equity Bank, Platinum Habib Bank and Investec amongst others.

Leading fund managers, investment banks, stock exchange executives and CEO's of African-listed companies have confirmed participation at the awards ceremony, as have many eminent members of the African investment community. The ceremony coincides with the annual Africa investor Index Series Summit, held in association with NYSE Euronext, at the New York Stock Exchange. The Summit will bring together leading investors, African CEO's and capital market specialists to look at current and potential opportunities for investment partnerships between US-based and international investors with African companies.

Judges for the 2008 Index Awards include: Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, chairman, Pan African Holdings and former chief executive NEPAD; Hubert Danso, vice chairman, Africa investor; Brad Durham, managing director and co-founder, Emerging Portfolio Research; Arunma Oteh, vice president: corporate management, African Development Bank; Professor Mthuli Ncube, director and Head of School and Professor of Finance, Wits Business School; and Maged Shawky, chairman of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange and chairman, African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA).

Commenting on the awards Hubert Danso, Vice Chairman Africa investor said:

"We are again delighted to have the opportunity to profile Africa's institutional investment community through the Africa investor Index Series Awards. Year on year we aim to showcase the best of African and international investment on the continent. The support we have received for these Index Awards is testament to the increased interest in African capital markets. We are particularly pleased that these awards will be hosted at the NYSE and follow the Ai Index Series Summit; which in itself has attracted record levels of interest and participation from the global investment community. There is no doubt these awards will go some way towards offering global emerging market investors the information they need to identify competitive investment opportunities and qualified partners."

Interest in the Africa investor Index Series, which tracks over $600bn of market capitalisation for Africa's top performing 100 companies, continues to grow and is a testament to Africa's phenomenal economic growth which is expected to buck global trends by accelerating from 6,1% in 2007 to 6,8% in 2008.

Both the Africa investor Index Series Summit in association with the NYSE Euronext and the Africa investor Index Series Awards represent an unprecedented opportunity for international investors and African capital market leaders to discuss investment partnerships at the NYSE.