Wema Bank Plc (NGX: WEMABANK) rights issue of more than 8 billion ordinary shares has opened for subscription.
According to the rights issue circular seen by Investogist, the bank is offering 8,572,103,573 ordinary shares of N0.50 at N4.66 per share on the basis of two (2) shares for every three (3) shares held as at September 28, 2023.
The bank said the shares being offered have been “cleared and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Application has been made to the Council of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) for admission of the Shares now being offered to the Daily Official List. It is expected that dealing in the Shares will commence immediately after admission to the Daily Official List.”
Key Dates:
Acceptance list opened on Monday,11 December and will close on Friday, 29 December 2023.
On Wednesday, January 31, 2024, the CSCS accounts of shareholders whose applications were successful will be credited.
The new shares of Wema Bank Plc will be listed on the floor of The Exchange on Wednesday, February 21, 2024.
The lead issuing house for the rights issue is Greenwich Merchant Bank Limited.
Kindly click here for the application form and here to access the rights circular.
According to the bank, the estimated net proceeds from the rights issue is N39,160,823,962.02 following the deduction of the offer costs – estimated at N785,178,688.16.
67.94 percent or N27.14 billion of the proceeds will be used to “deepen the Bank’s Retail and Commercial loan portfolio.”
While 21.88 percent or N8.74 billion will be used to “Increase the bank’s lending capacity to the SME sector” and 8.21 percent or N3.28 billion will be used to “improve IT infrastructure to strengthen the Bank’s digital play (ALAT).”
The shareholders of Wema Bank Plc had at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on Friday, the 31st day of December 2021 at Wema Towers, 54 Marina Lagos Island, Lagos, authorised the Board of Directors to raise capital up to the sum of N40,000,000,000.00 (Forty Billion Naira), by way of a rights issue to the existing shareholders at such price, time and/or on terms as the directors of the Bank may deem fit, subject to the bank obtaining all requisite regulatory approvals.
At the close of trading on Tuesday, Wema Bank closed 1.14 percent down at N5.19 per share. YTD it has up over 30%.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.