BGFI Holding Corporation has filled the second phase of its share sale on the Central African stock exchange. In a statement dated 15 October 2026, the parent company of BGFIBank said demand for the BGFI Holding IPO second round exceeded the 80.558 billion FCFA it was seeking, according to Investir au Cameroun.
That is a sharp turnaround. The first round, which closed in February 2026, covered only about a third of what the group wanted to raise. For the Bourse des valeurs mobilières de l'Afrique centrale (BVMAC) in Douala, the result is a rare sign of depth in a market that has struggled to attract large equity deals.
What the BGFI Holding IPO second phase offered
The second window opened on 15 September and closed on 15 October 2026, Financial Afrik reported. It put 1,006,975 new shares on sale at 80,000 FCFA each, the same price as the first round. At that price the full block is worth 80.558 billion FCFA.
The aim was to place the shares left unsold in the first round and lift the portion of the group held by the public from 3.85% to 10%, Investir au Cameroun said.
BGFI changed two things to get there:
- It removed the 0.5% cap on how much of the capital any single investor could hold. The cap had kept large institutional buyers on the sidelines.
- It added EDC Investment Corporation as a placement partner alongside BGFIBourse, the group's own brokerage, which ran the first round as sole arranger.
The price did not move. Keeping it at 80,000 FCFA a share was a bet that the problem in round one was who could buy, not what they had to pay.
A difficult first round
The first phase was meant to raise 125.883 billion FCFA. It brought in 45.325 billion FCFA, a coverage rate of 36.01%, according to Investir au Cameroun.
The road to that result was long. BGFI announced plans to sell 10% of its capital through the BVMAC in July 2025, African Markets reported. Shareholders led by Christian Kerangall, who together held about 23% of the capital, went to the Libreville Commercial Court to block the offer. Their challenge followed governance changes at the group, including the appointment of chief executive Henri-Claude Oyima as a minister of state in Gabon.
The court dismissed the claims on 19 September 2025. The regional market regulator, COSUMAF, approved the operation on 28 October 2025. Subscriptions opened on 10 November, were due to close on 24 December, and were then extended to 7 February 2026 without an official explanation.
In the end, 7,601 subscribers from 24 countries took part, and individual investors made up more than 71% of subscriptions, African Markets said. The stock started trading on 7 May 2026 under the ticker BGFI HC on the exchange's A-Premium compartment, with a reference price of 80,000 FCFA.
Where Cameroonian money went
Cameroonian investors put 12.7 billion FCFA into the first round, or 28.1% of the total. That placed Cameroon second behind Gabon, whose investors subscribed more than 22 billion FCFA. The country breakdown for the second round has not been published.
What we still do not know
The 15 October statement leaves several questions open. BGFI Holding did not give the total amount of demand or the exact oversubscription rate. It has not said whether it will scale back individual orders, or whether it will ask COSUMAF for permission to enlarge the issue to absorb the extra demand.
Those details matter for small investors. In an oversubscribed offer, retail buyers are often the ones whose orders get cut, especially once the cap that protected them from being crowded out by institutions has been removed.
It is also unclear how much of the new money will reach Cameroon. BGFI says the proceeds will fund its "BGFI 2030" plan, which includes strengthening existing subsidiaries and creating three new ones by 2030. No specific amount has been set aside for BGFIBank Cameroon.
Why it matters for the Douala exchange
BGFI Holding is the parent of a banking group present in twelve countries in Africa and Europe. African Markets described it as the first multinational from the CEMAC zone to list on the BVMAC's equity market.
The regional exchange has been trying to grow beyond a handful of listed companies and a market dominated by government bonds. A large bank finishing a capital raise, even in two attempts, gives it a reference point for other companies weighing a listing, including state-linked firms the governments of the zone have long promised to float.
The regulator is moving in the same direction. COSUMAF will lift the 20 billion FCFA ceiling on private placements from 1 November 2026, Investir au Cameroun reported, a change meant to make it easier for companies to raise money from investors in the region.
The lesson from BGFI is a practical one. The first round was open to everyone but capped individual holdings, and it fell well short. The second round let institutions buy in size, and it filled. For other issuers in Central Africa, who can buy and how much may count as much as the price.
For more on how Cameroon's financial sector is being reshaped, read our report on the interest Orange Money and MTN MoMo earn on users' funds.
