Sequoia Financial Group (ASX:SEQ) has confirmed that Sequoia Corporate Finance (SCF) a 100% owned subsidiary of Sequoia acted as sole lead manager to the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Chilwa Minerals Limited (ASX:CHW) onto the ASX in July 2023.

We are pleased to acknowledge that Chilwa was named as the 2023 ASX IPO of the Year at the Australian Stockbrokers Foundation Awards, held recently in Sydney.

Sequoia would particularly like to congratulate Michael Holland, Richard Rouse, and Alex Fabbri, and for their commitment in bringing this business to the ASX. We also note the support that came from Sequoia Wealth Management advisers Hamish McCathie, Daniel McFarlane, Enzo Salvatore, Kate Hanrahan, Mark Wiseman, Patrick Trindade, Peter Cohen, Prasanna Wickramatunge, Rohan Talwar and Tom Conn who strongly supported this transaction.

In our due diligence process, Sequoia was particularly impressed with a number of key factors:

• Historical exploration activities on the asset;
• The strong African presence, and particularly in Malawi, of Portugal based engineering and construction multinational Mota-Engil Homepage EN - Mota-Engil as project vendor and major shareholder.
• The investor upside created by the undemanding capital structure and limited promoter shares; and
• the dedication and passion of Managing Director Cadell Buss to drive this project forward.

Sequoia continues to support Chilwa, and saw Michael Holland recently visit the asset to review the progress already made we now await the maiden results from the ongoing critical minerals exploration program at their Lake Chilwa project.