Airtel CEO rakes £757, 440 from share sales

Airtel Africa Plc on Friday notified the Nigerian investing public of the transaction in the Company’s ordinary shares (Ordinary Shares) by Olusegun Ogunsanya, its Chief Executive Officer.

The transaction on August 4 at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) of 666,174 .760 units at £1.137 per share amounted to £757, 440.70.

“This sale of Ordinary Shares is to be used to fund a property purchase by Ogunsanya. Following this transaction Mr Ogunsanya holds 4,325,282 Ordinary Shares in Airtel Africa,” according to the provider of telecommunications and mobile money services.

This comes on the heels of investors in Nigeria’s equities market looking away from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) financial report for 2022 which showed worsening fiscal crisis.

Defying the report, the market which closed Friday in green by 0.18 percent pushed the week’s return higher by 0.20 percent in continued interest in banking and insurance stocks.

The market gained in three of five trading sessions in the review week, pushing year-to-date (YtD) postive return to 27.46 percent.

Vetiva Research analysts who noted that sectors traded mixed in the review week, with just the banking and insurance indices closing the week in the green, said they expect similar mixed sessions in a new week.

The consolidated financial statements of the Central Bank of Nigeria released on Friday also revealed a debt of $7.5 billion to American banks, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs as of the financial year ended December 2022.

Also included as part of the apex bank’s liabilities is another $6.3 billion owed in foreign currency forwards which brings the total liabilities to $13.8 billion.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and equities market capitalisation increased from preceding week’s lows of 65,198.08 points and N35.480 trillion respectively to 65,325.37 points and
N35.572trillion at the close of trading on Friday.

Also, in their outlook for the fixed income market, Vetiva Research analysts said they anticipate the bond segment should remain bearish on the back of tight system liquidity. Similarly, they expect liquidity levels to drive participation in the NTB segment.

Meristem research analysts said at the T-bills auction held in the review week, total subscription (N836.30billion) was 5.43x higher that the total offer (N153.99bn).

Consequently, stop rates declined across the trio instruments to 5percent, 5.90percent and 9percent (versus 6percent, 8percent and 12.50percent), respectively.

In the secondary market, performance was mixed as average T-bills yield declined to 6.88percent (versus 6.97percent the preceding week) while average bond yield increased to 13.52percent (versus 13.31percent in the preceding week).