Universal Insurance Plc has announced a proposed merger with African Alliance Insurance Plc.

In a pre-merger notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Friday, broker to one of the parties, APT Securities and Funds Limited, said following the merger, the surviving entity would be referred to as Universal Alliance Insurance Plc.

“Upon consummation of the merger, all the shareholders of African Alliance Insurance Plc will in exchange for each share held in African Alliance Insurance receive such share(s) in Universal, the surviving entity, as agreed by the parties,” the notice read.

Meanwhile, the NSE report for the week ended April 5, 2013, showed that the NSE All-Share Index appreciated by 765.12 points or 2.28 per cent to close on Friday at 34,301.37 basis points, up from 33,536.25 points recorded at the beginning of the week.

Similarly, the market capitalisation of the listed equities on the main board increased by 2.28 per cent from N10.733tn recorded at the beginning of the week to close at N10.978tn.

In the Over-the-Counter Bond market, a turnover of 172.521 million units worth N216.972bn was recorded in 1,265 deals, in contrast to 186.067 million units worth N226.765bn exchanged the preceding week in 1,185 transactions.

In all, a total of 1.604 billion shares worth of N19.08bn were exchanged by investors in 26,264 deals, compared to 1.612 billion shares valued at N13.542bn exchanged the week before in 23,021 deals.

At the close of trading activities for the week, the Financial Services sector accounted for 1.197 billion shares valued at N11.448bn exchanged by investors in 15,771 deals.

The conglomerates sector followed on the activity chart with 119.511 million shares valued at N428.83m traded in 982 deals.

The banking sub-sector was the most active during the week in terms of volume traded as 951.162 million shares worth N9.305bn were exchanged by investors in 11,498 deals.

Volume in the sub-sector was largely driven by activities in the shares of Zenith Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Wema Bank Plc.

Trading in the shares of the three banks accounted for 368.485 million shares, representing 38.74 per cent of the turnover recorded in the sub-sector for the week.

Source: Punch (by Udeme Ekwere)