Merit Ibe
A Federal High Court in Lagos, has approved the restructuring arrangement of Continental Reinsurance Plc. This is sequel to the approval of the company’s shareholders at a court ordered meeting held in the last quarter of last year. By this approval, shareholders of the company are free to choose among the three options provided in the scheme even as the company promised to ensure that the concerns of all the parties are duly addressed.
The court ordered meeting of the company, which was held on October 29, 2019, had over 90 per cent of the minority shareholders approve the restructuring plan proposed by the Board of Directors.
The Board had informed the shareholders that in order for the company to favourably compete in the global reinsurance market, it was pertinent that the company aims higher to achieve the kind of ratings that would bring more recognition and profitability.
After the court’s approval of the arrangement, the Group Managing Director of the company, Dr. Olufemi Oyetunji, stated that the restructuring is more about repositioning and achieving the best for the company. He affirmed that the reorganisation has nothing to do with the recapitalisation activities going on in Nigeria because continental re commenced its restructuring process before NAICOM came up with the new capital requirement. “We have astutely read the signals in our operating environment. Universally, these signals say grow, capitalise, expand your services and innovate. We have responded by negotiating an individualised balance of all these signals,” Oyetunji said. By the scheme, the shareholders could elect to take cash, have their shares transferred to Mauritius directly or keep their shares with the company through a nominee vehicle.
“As at now, a significant number of our shareholders have made their choices. While some have chosen to collect cash, a few want their shares transferred to Mauritius and those who fall in that category are going through a KYC process. Those who want to join the nominee vehicle are being coordinated by PACE Registrar, which is the company in charge of that process.