The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) says it has received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the demutualisation of the nation’s bourse.
The NSE Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said this on Monday at the 2019 Market Recap and 2020 Outlook held in Lagos.
Onyema said that the letter was received by the exchange in December 2019 for final stage of the demutualisation process.
Demutualisation of a stock exchange is a process by which a non-profit, member/brokers owned mutual exchange is converted into a profit-seeking shareholder corporation, open to members of the public.
Demutualising an exchange therefore transforms it from being owned by members or brokers, to one with a different governance structure where members of the public can buy shares.
“Now that we have seen the ‘No objection’ letter from the SEC in December, we are now putting in place final touches to have the court ordered meeting and the Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EGM).
“There will be significant engagement with investors, press and our primary constituency, the brokers and other members of the exchange and the general public. So there is a very robust plan already in place.
“We are working as quickly as we can to complete it and we hope that very soon, we will put out the notices for the EGM.
“There is statutory requirement, you have to wait for 28 days for the court ordered meeting and 21 days for EGM.
“We are following the process and we worked through the holiday period to see how quickly we can bring in these meetings,” he said.
Onyema said that the corporate structure of the exchange would change with demutualisation.
Meanwhile trading resumed for the week on Monday on the Exchange still in a bullish trend following investors’ interest in MTN Nigeria Communication due to the tax debt reprieve.
MTN stock rose further with a gain of N11.60 to close at N127.60 per share, leading the ganiers’ table.
MTN Nigeria Communications on Jan. 10 said its case with the Federal Government over alleged revenue indebtedness of N242.24 billion and 1.28 billion dollars had been withdrawn.
The company said its legal counsel received a letter from the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, which formally withdrew the government’s demand for the funds.
It was trailed by UACN followed with 80k to close at N11.05, while Glaxosmithkline appreciated by 35k to close at N5.65 per share.
United Bank for Africa gained 30k to close at N8.70, while Flour Mill also grew by 30k to close at N23.30 per share.
Consequently, the All-Share Index advanced by 218.19 points or 0.74 per cent to settle at 29,633.58 against 29,415.39 achieved on Friday.
Also, the market capitalisation, which opened at N15.174 trillion, inched N113 billion or 0.74 per cent to close at N15.287 trillion.
On the other hand, Presco recorded the highest loss, declining by N4.65 to close at N52.25 per share.
BUA Cement trailed with a loss of N2 to close at N39, while Seplat dipped N1.50 to close at N588 per share.
Cadbury declined by N1.05 to close at N9.50, while Unilever was down by N1 to close at N18 per share.
The total volume of traded increased by 23.96 per cent with an exchange of 348.24 million shares valued at N8.55 billion exchanged in 5,377 deals.
This was in contrast to 280.921 million shares worth N4.82 billion traded in 5,189 deals on Friday.
