UPDATE 1-S.Africa's Eqstra Holdings debuts on the JSE

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By Gugulakhe Lourie

JOHANNESBURG, May 12 (Reuters) - South Africa's leasing and equipment group Eqstra Holdings (EQSJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday to raise capital to fund growth in construction and mining.

The stock traded between 15.99 rand and 19.00 rand, valuing the company in excess of 5 billion rand with more than 289 million shares changing hands.

By 1035 GMT Eqstra traded at 18.50 rand.

The group -- unbundled from Imperial Holdings (IPLJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) -- is a market leader in South Africa in passenger and commercial vehicle leasing, industrial and capital equipment leasing for open-cast hard-rock mining.

"A lot of our efforts and investment is going to be construction and the mining sector, because we believe that is a specific growth area. That attracts more favourable margins at this stage," Walter Hill, Chief Executive Officer of Eqstra Holdings, told Reuters.

"We have outgrown the Imperial Holdings balance sheet and required significantly more debt funding to realise our exciting growth potential."

Eqstra Holdings also has operations the UK and sub-Saharan Africa and numbers MTN Group (MTNJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and AngloGold Ashanti (ANGJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) among its customers.