Sovereign Trust Announces 73% Success in Rights Issue

Ebere Nwoji

Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, has announced the result of its rights issue, saying the offer was 72.50 per cent subscribed by its shareholders.

The company, which was one of the first insurance firms to visit the capital market for capital raising, said a total of 4,170,411,648 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at 50 kobo per share was offered to its shareholders on the basis of one new ordinary share for every two ordinary shares of 50 kobo each held in the company as at the close of register on January 15, 2019.

It said at the close of the offer period, a total of 110 (one hundred and ten) acceptance forms for 3,053,642,718 ordinary shares of the Rights Issue were received out of which, 108, (one hundred and eight) forms were found to be valid and accepted while 2 application forms were rejected as the buyers did not qualified for the shares as at the qualification date.

The spokesman of the company, Mr Segun Bankole, while analysing the performance of the rights issue, said, “in all, the rights issue offer was 72.50 per cent subscribed which has been considered quite commendable by industry watchers considering the bearish nature of insurance stocks in the market in recent times.

“A further breakdown of the basis of allotment shows that 99 shareholders fully accepted their rights totaling 1,262,022,678 ordinary shares, 9 shareholders with provisional allotment of 25,573,204 ordinary shares partially accepted their rights totaling 6,430,000 ordinary shares while renouncing a total of 19,143,204 ordinary shares.

“No applications were traded on the floor of The Nigerian Stock Exchange during the period of the Offer”.

According to Bankole, a total of 2,882,815,766 ordinary shares were fully renounced, while a total of 19,143,204 ordinary shares were partially renounced, bringing a total number of renounced ordinary shares to 2,901,958,970.

He said out of the 99 shareholders that accepted their rights in full, 57 shareholders applied for additional 1,755,190,040 ordinary shares and were allotted in full.

He said the un-allotted shares totaling 1,146,768,930 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each shall revert to the company’s Authorised Share Capital, adding

“Consequently, the management of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, has notified all shareholders that the allotment of the rights issue will be communicated by way of e-certificates in the names of all successful shareholders through the company’s registrars, Meristem Registrars Limited, 213 Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba, Lagos, not later than December 24, 2019.