Goddy Egene
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last Friday delisted the entire 10,372,744,312 ordinary shares of Continental Reinsurance Plc from the exchange. The NSE explained that the delisting followed the application of by the company to delist after conclusion of scheme of arrangement that allowed Continental Reinsurance (CRe) African Investments Limited) to acquire all the shares of CRe Nigeria.
The board of CRe Nigeria had in November 2018, said it 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 made that 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.
CRe Investments offered 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 Managing Director of reinsurance firm, Dr. Olufemi Oyetunji, had a year ago denied plans to delist from the exchange.
According to him, the company only planned to change its business structure to attract capital.
“We need all the capital we can get for this restructuring. So, it is not even a wise decision to delist. People saying that we plan to delist are spreading rumours. We have no plans to delist or to do a change of name for the company,” he said.
Oyetunji had explained that plans were to transfer the various subsidiaries of the group to CRe Investments to enable CRe Nigeria to shore up its balance sheets and capital required for maintaining and expanding the business.
He said: “As consideration for the transfer of the shareholders’ shares in CRe Nigeria to CRe Investments under the new scheme, shareholders have the option to receive one ordinary share of $1 each in the capital of CRe Investments for 176 ordinary share of 50 kobo each in the capital of CRe Nigeria as at the effective date.”
