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Ugandan pharmaceutical tycoon Emmanuel Katongole has seen the market value of his shares in Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Limited (CiplaQCIL) fall by more than UGX3.16 billion ($1.01 million) in the past year, as investors sell off shares in the pharmaceutical manufacturing company.
The decrease in the value of his stake follows a drop in the appetite for emerging market shares after central banks in developed markets raised interest rates in an attempt to slow the rise in inflation caused by increases in energy and food prices.
CiplaQCIL is a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm based in Luzira, a suburb of Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. The company makes triple-combination antiretroviral drugs such as Lumartem, an antimalarial drug, and Texavir and Zentair, generic Hepatitis-B medications.
Katongole, a leading pharmaceutical tycoon and CiplaQCIL’s executive director, owns 2.79 percent of the company, which translates to 101,933,042 ordinary shares.
The group’s shares were worth UGX69 ($0.0183) at the time of writing this report, unchanged from their opening price this week as buying and selling pressures on the local bourse were evenly cleared out.
Shares in the publicly traded biotech company have dropped by more than 30 percent in the past year, from UGX100 ($0.0282) to UGX69 ($0.0183), as investors on the Uganda Securities Exchange continue to sell off shares in order to preserve wealth.
As a result of the double-digit decline in the shares of CiplaQCIL, Katongole’s 2.79-percent stake in the pharmaceutical manufacturing company fell from UGX10.2 billion ($2.87 million) on July 12, 2021, to UGX7.03 billion ($1.86 million) at the time of writing,
This amounts to a total loss of UGX3.16 billion ($1.01 million) for the Ugandan pharma tycoon in the past year.
In addition to his stake in the company, Katongole has a beneficial interest in Vero Food Industries Limited and Tinosoft Limited, a Kampala-based IT firm.
