By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Osun State based primary mortgage institution (PMI) Omoluabi Savings & Loans Plc on Tuesday listed N2.75 billion worth of shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) Alternative Securities Market (ASeM), emerging first company to do so.
The company listed 5.0 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at 0.55 kobo per share.
This is coming on the heels of a concluded initial public offering (IPO) by Omoluabi Savings & Loans in December 2013 when it offered to members of the investing public 3.0 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at 0.55 kobo per share.
‘’The 5.0 billion shares the company listed on the Nigerian bourse is a combination of the 3.0 billion IPO shares and the existing 2.0 billion shares of Omoluabi,’’ Babatunde Olufemi Alao, chief executive officer of the company said at the ‘’Fact behind the Listing’’.
According to him, Omoluabi Savings & Loans is one of the 34 PMIs that scaled the recapitalisation hurdle set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He affirmed that the company had a pre offer market capitalisation of N1.1 billion and as at today’s listing, post offer market capitalisation stands at N2.75 billion.
Alao added that the listing of Omoluabi Savings & Loans shares would give the company more visibility and aid growth to achieve its vision of being the number one savings and loans company listed on the ASeM of the NSE.
“We believe this is another landmark achievement for the shareholders of this notable company, who on a yearly basis will collect dividends, and also an investment opportunity created for the country,” Wale Bolorunduro, chairman of the board of the company said.
Bolorunduro affirmed that the board believes in fundamentals of the company, ‘’we will strive hard to sustain our performance. The belief is that the company will now have more capital to trade and lend to clients, who are the recipient of mortgage services,’’ he said.
He further affirmed that Omoluabi Savings & Loans will now have the capacity to lend to people who want 10, 20 years mortgage to buy a house from four to ten million naira. ‘’So, think of a multiplier effect of increasing the shareholders’ fund, which enables you to do more business in terms of capacity as a bank; it will also enable you to attract more deposits because there is always ratio between your shareholders fund and your deposits. Now, it can take more deposits and it can also do more business,” Bolorunduro added.
MorganCapital Securities who now owns 39 percent of shareholding of the Osun State based PMI was the financial adviser/issuing house to the IPO.
Oscar Onyema, the CEO of the Nigeria’s Exchange at the ‘’Facts behind the Listing’’ advised the company to keep to the listing rules on the NSE.
According to him, the newly launched Corporate Governance Ratings System (CGRS) is designed to rate companies listed on Nigerian bourse based on their corporate governance and anti-corruption culture, thereby improving the overall perception of and trust in Nigeria’s capital markets and business practices.
On his part, Haruna Jalo-Waziri, executive director, business development at the NSE said the ASeM board allows issuers; especially indigenous companies the opportunity to inject relatively low cost and long term capital into their businesses through flexible rules that recognises their growth potential rather than the size of their operations.
‘’Omoluabi Savings & Loans Plc will be the first new listing on the board since its official launch in 2013, hence a remarkable achievement by the Nigerian Stock Exchange” Jalo-Waziri affirmed.
