Qatar National Bank Converts Preference Shares to Ordinary Shares in ETI

Qatar National Bank, one of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI)’s major shareholders, with 732,277,056 preference shares, is among the shareholders of the company who want to convert their preference shares into ordinary shares. In all, holders of 819,424,548 preference shares have indicated to intention to exercise their convention option out of an outstanding of 1,031,515,911 preference shares, as at the end of December 2015.

In a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday, ETI said by a resolution passed on the 14th of September 2011, the ETI Board of Directors approved the acquisition of Oceanic Bank International Plc.

“In line with the terms on conversion of preference shares recommended to Oceanic shareholders by the Oceanic board, as stated in the scheme of arrangement documents, and approved by Oceanic shareholders, preference shareholders had the right, exercisable at any time between the third anniversary of the issue date and the fifth anniversary of this date, to convert their preference shares into ordinary shares in the company at the rate of one preference share to 0.76923 ordinary share.

“Preference shareholders, therefore, had the right to convert their preference shares up to Monday the 31st of October, 2016. Out of an outstanding of 1,031,515,911 preference shares, as at the end of December 2015, the holders of 819,424,548 preference shares exercised their right to convert their preference shares into ordinary shares in the company,” the company said.

Commenting on the development, the Group Chief Executive Officer of ETI, Mr. Ade Ayeyemi said: “We appreciate the trust and confidence that the preference shareholders, particularly QNB, have in Ecobank. With the support of all our shareholders, we shall continue to provide the best quality banking services to our numerous clients across the largest banking network in Africa.”

He said the total ETI shares will increase to 24,730,354,443 ordinary shares upon conversion, noting that the company is taking all necessary steps to get the shares converted, issued and listed on the three stock exchanges on which the company is listed.

Meanwhile, trading at the stock market resumed for the week on bearish notes as the NSE All-Share Index fell by 0.06 per cent to close at 25,318.41. Similarly, market capitalisation shed N5.2 billion to close at N8.7 trillion.

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