MARKET NEWS
Goddy Egene
Continental Reinsurance African Investments Limited (CRe Investments), which is the parent firm of Continental Reinsurance (CRe Nigeria)Plc, has proposed to buy all the outstanding shares of CRe Nigeria.
In a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), yesterday, the board of CRe Nigeria, said it has received an offer from CRe African Investments Limited to acquire all the outstanding and issued shares through a scheme of arrangement.
According to company, CRe Investments is making this offer in order to initiate a much needed restructuring exercise for CRe Nigeria, with a view to consolidating the CRe Nigeria’s operations and repositioning it for enhanced competitiveness in the global insurance market.
It is intended that the transaction will be executed through a Scheme of Arrangement under Section539 of the Companies& Allied Matters Act Cap C20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and other applicable rules and regulations.
CRe Investments is offering N2.04 per share for the 10,372,744,314 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each or one ordinary shares of $1 each in the capital of CRe Investments for every 176 ordinary share of 50 kobo each held in CRe Nigeria
The proposed scheme consideration represents a 46.76 per cent premium to the last traded share price of the Company on October 5, 2018, being the last business day prior to the date the proposal was received from CRe Investments and a 36 per cent premium on the trading price as at close of the last business day, November 19, 2018.
The company said it had received the Securities & Exchange Commission’s ‘No Objection ‘to the scheme.
The scheme is also subject to the approval of the shareholders at a Court-
Ordered Meeting as well as the sanction of the Federal High Court. The meeting is scheduled to hold on December 20, in Lagos.
“Shareholders are advised to exercise caution when dealing in CRe Nigeria’s shares until a further announcement is made,” the company advised.
Meanwhile, trading at the stock market remained bearish with the NSE All-Share Index declining by 1.3 per cent to close loser at 31,173.71 due to sell-offs in Seplat (-9.6 per cent ), Dangote Cement Plc (-1.4 per cent) and sustained profit taking in GTBank (-2.5 per cent). Thus, year-to-date (YTD) declined has worsened to -18.5 per cent. However, volume and value traded improved, rising by 73.7 per cent and 41.9 per cent to 182.1 million shares and N2.8 billion respectively.
