Hearts concedes IPO shares flop

Accra Hearts of Oak's decision to go public by floating shares has been suffering some setbacks, as the club's Initial Public Offer (IPO) is failing to spectacularly attract the public, unlike other institutions.

As a result, the club has fallen woefully short of the GH¢ 10million it targeted from the floatation of shares, after making 20million shares available for sale from August 1st, 2011.

This has compelled officials of the club and managers of the IPO, Strategic African Securities (SAS) to for the second time running extend the period by fourteen days, hoping that unlike the first extension, the second would elicit a favourable response from the public.

The club's board chairman Commodore Mensah concedes that the initiative was a major flop.

'To be very frank we have not been able to reach our target with the tracking we have done and, therefore, it is our hope that fans would take full advantage of this opportunity,' he said.

'Fans who have bought the shares cannot wait forever and, therefore, this could be the final extension after 14 October,' he added.

Floatation of shares by a football club is a novelty in Ghana, and with the massive failure of the first attempt by Accra Hearts of Oak, one wonders whether any other club in the country may want to emulate them.