By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Africa’s tier one lender, Access Bank Plc will credit allotted shares to the CSCS accounts of investors who applied for its ongoing rights issue latest May 28, according to the rights circular document made available to InvestAdvocate.
The indicative abridged timetable as contained in the circular say the bank will do electronic-allotment and the CSCS accounts of shareholders will be credited not later than 15 working days from the date the allotment is approved.
The lender advised shareholders to state the names of their respective stockbrokers and their Clearing House Numbers (CHN) in the relevant spaces on the Acceptance Form.
Similarly, it said that share certificates of shareholders that do not provide CSCS accounts will be sent by registered post within the same time period.
From the indicative abridged timetable, allotment announcement will be made by issuing houses on May 15, 2015. As at the date of this Rights Circular, the Bank had approximately 842,000 shareholders.
Access Bank on Monday opened its N52.6 billion ($275.10 million) rights issue at N6.90 per share and will sell 7.63 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at a ratio of one new share for every three held by existing shareholders.
The Africa’s top tier lender said the capital raising falls in line with its five-year corporate strategy plan to be one of the top three banks in the country and the “world’s most respected African bank”.
“This will be anchored on four critical pillars – capital, human capital, governance and risk management. It will also enable the Bank to be more competitive and meet the funding needs of its blue chip customers that meet its credit risk criteria,” the bank added.
Herbert Wigwe, group managing director/chief executive officer, Access Bank affirmed that the proceeds from the offer will be used to upgrade the Bank’s information technology platforms to enable it provide better services, upgrade the Bank’s branch networks and further improve the working environment.
“The funds raised would provide Access Bank with additional capacity to further consolidate its leading corporate banking business as well as additional capital headroom to support our increasing market share in the SME and retail segments’,” Wigwe said.
The offer is expected to close on March 04, 2015, lead issuing house is Chapel Hill, while joint issuing houses include Marina Securities, Stanbic IBTC, Renaissance Capital, Vetiva Capital, Greenwich Trust, Futureview Financial Services and WSTC Financial Services.
