Access Bank records 79.3% subscription in Rights Issue

Access Bank plc has released the result of its Rights Issue of 7,627,639,636 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each, on the basis of one new ordinary share for every three ordinary shares at N6.90 kobo per share.

The bank noted that a total of 24,016 acceptances for 6,792, 619, 568 units valued at N46,869,075,019.20 were received in connection with the Rights Issue held as at October 23, 2014 and closed on Wednesday, March 18, 2015.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) verification process began April, 2015. “Following the verification process, the CBN advised that 34 names representing a total of 747,566,845 ordinary shares valued at N5, 158,211,230.50 have been rejected,” Access Bank noted yesterday.

According to the bank, “consequent to the conclusion of CBN, a total of 23,982 acceptances for 6,045,052,723 units valued at N41, 710,863,788.70 were received and processed successfully in connection with the Rights Issue.”

The bank further noted that 23,982 acceptance forms for 6,045,052,723 units of the Rights received were found to be valid under the terms of the Rights and were processed accordingly. “The Rights Issue was therefore 79.3% subscribed.”

A summary of the Rights Issue shows that 19,404 shareholders accepted their Rights in full, totaling 464,798,144 ordinary shares; 486 shareholders with a provisional allotment of 422,763,459 ordinary shares partially accepted their Rights for 206,983,287 ordinary shares. “Thus, the balance of 215,780,172 ordinary shares were renounced”, the bank added.

It further noted that 4,092 shareholders purchased Rights for 1,282,093,126 ordinary shares traded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

A total of 5,457,984,907 ordinary shares were fully renounced, bringing the total number of shares renounced to 5,673,765,079 ordinary shares.

Of the 19,404 shareholders who accepted their rights in full, 11,944 shareholders applied for additional 4,091,178,166 ordinary shares and were allotted in full from the total renounced rights. A total of 1,582,586,913 ordinary shares were unallotted.

These unallotted shares will be reverted to the unissued share capital of the bank. The stated basis of allotment, as well as its announcement has been cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Iheanyi Nwachukwu