The shareholders of Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc at the company’s annual general meeting held on Monday July 15 resolved among others to raise additional capital of N2.37billion by way of Private Placement of the company’s ordinary shares.
The shareholders resolved that subject to obtaining the requisite regulatory approvals, the Private Placement shall be by way of sale of 2,261,538,462 ordinary shares of the Company at the rate of N1.05kobo per share to the VFD Group Plc, a financial services-focused proprietary investment company.
Private placement is a funding round of securities which are sold not through a public offering, but rather through a private offering, mostly to a small number of chosen investors.
Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc is listed on the mainboard of the Nigerian Stock Exchange under the “Mortgage Carriers, Brokers” subsector of the Financial Services Sector.
Details of the resolutions at the meeting are at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The Private Placement formed part of the special resolutions at the meeting which held in Lagos.
Considering Abbey’s last closing price of 90kobo per share at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the private placement is priced at a premium. Though, the stock had reached a 52-week high of N1.17 kobo per share.
Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc is a Primary Mortgage Bank (PMB) which operates under the supervision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The company’s business is providing banking services in personal savings and investments, cash management, specialized banking, deposit and funds management, children and school account services, real estate and mortgage services, amongst others.
It is also an accredited Primary Mortgage Bank for the National Housing Fund (NHF) and a subscriber to the recently created Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company Plc (NMRC).
The shareholders of Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc also resolved that subject to the approval of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (the NSE) the Placement shares shall be listed on the NSE upon conclusion of the Private Placement.
The directors of the company have been authorized to take all necessary steps required to give full effect to the Private Placement including all necessary filings at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
During the ordinary business at the meeting, the shareholders received the audited financial statements of the company for the year ended December 31 2018 together with the reports of the directors, auditors and audit committee.
The shareholders also resolved that the authorised share capital of the Company be increased from N3.5billion to N6billion by the creation of 5billion additional shares of 50kobo each, such shares ranking pari-passu with the existing shares of the Company.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
