Chinwendu Obienyi
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has revealed that it has secured approval from the Federal High Court Lagos, sanctioning the Scheme of Arrangement for the demutualisation of NSE.
Demutualisation is the process by which a mutually owned organisation transforms to a shareholder owned entity.
Chief Executive Officer of NSE, Oscar Onyema, said, the NSE demutualisation process is moving ahead in line with the expected sequence of events, following the conclusion of its Extraordinary General Meeting and Court Ordered Meeting (COM) in March 2020. “Understandably, in current circumstances, some of the legal and regulatory steps required have taken a little longer than originally expected, but today we have received court sanction for the results of the EGM, in particular, the Scheme of Arrangement and we are looking to secure the re-registration of the Exchange as well as the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)within the coming months.”, Onyema explained.
Members of the NSE had approved the demutualisation scheme of the Exchange at an EGM in March 2017. This was followed by the signing of the Demutualisation of the NSE Bill into law in August 2018. In December 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria in a No Objection letter, gave its consent to the NSE to hold the COM and EGM that would facilitate its conversion from a not-for-profit entity limited by guarantee into a profit-making, public limited liability company owned by shareholders.
Meanwhile investors’ sentiment in the shares of Caverton, Okomu oil and Dangote Cement saw proceedings on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sustain its positive start to the new trading week.
This was even as market capitalisation grew by N136 billion at the close of yesterday’s trading from Monday’s opening value of N12.441 trillion to N12.613 trillion. This means that investors have gained over N172 billion in two consecutive sessions.
Similarly, the All Share Index (ASI) rose by 1.09 per cent to close at 24,202.87 points while year-to-date (YtD) loss moderated to -10 per cent. Activity level on the bourse remained upbeat as the volume and value of stocks traded stood at 339.75 million units and N3.92 billion respectively, exchanged in 4,784 deals.
Further analysis showed that Caverton led 28 other stocks on the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N2.75 per share. Okomu oil trailed with 9.99 per cent to close at N64.40, Unilever increased by 9.85 per cent to close at N15.05, Cileasing rose by 9.78 per cent to close at N5.05 while Cutix garnered 9.56 per cent to close at N1.49.