The Board of Directors of the Industrial and General Insurance Plc (IGI) has explained why the company’s shares are yet to be listed, four years after the sale of its shares to the general public.

The board also gave reasons for the late convention of its Annual General Meeting (AGM) for shareholders to approve its 2009 financial reports, saying the company was only trying to comply with regulatory requirements on consolidation of group accounts. The Executive Vice Chairman of the company, Mr. Remi Olowude, gave these explanations at the Annual General Meeting hosted by the company in Lagos.

The company offered its shares to the general public in the course of the last consolidation programme in the country’s insurance industry, which ended February 2007, on the condition that the shares would be listed one year after the offer. Unfortunately, four years down the line, the company’s shares were yet to be listed on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange as promised, making shareholders in the company curious as to the safety of their investments.

Giving explanations as to why the company’s board failed to honour its promise in this regard, Olowude maintained that listing the shares on the exchange at a time when the prices of all the shares traded on the floor of the exchange have gone down to almost par price was the concern of the company.

According to him, listing the shares when there is no investible fund in the market would amount to devaluing investments in the company and as such, the viable option for investors in the company is for the listing of the shares to wait till a period when the market recovers reasonably. “In terms of listing of our shares, it is a matter for us as owners to agree on entirely. What is the market experience today? The stocks of about 80 per cent of insurance companies are sold for 50 kobo per share, in fact less than par value.

“The truth of the situation is that some people rushed to our office and said we know that it is 50 kobo per share but I have to pay my children’s school fees, I am ready to sell at 35 kobo below par please what can you do for me? That is the state of the economy.

“So when the economy is like this, will you advise us to go to the market? Based on net asset basis, the price of IGI is rated high but if you go to the market and with no money in people’s pocket, with the prices of all other insurance companies and banks at the prices where they are, then you will be committing suicide. Some of you may have borrowed money to buy the shares; I also went to borrow money to buy it I don’t want my shares at the ridiculous prices in the market,” Olowude stressed.

He also advised the worried investors to hold their peace, saying “I will appeal to you all to be patient. Some of us wrote petitions to the regulators and we explained and asked the regulators if they would have advised us to do contrary to what we have done in a situation like the one we have now.”

Source: Thisday