The management of Prestige Assurance Plc, on Friday said its rescheduled share reconstruction exercise will now hold between May 23 and June 6, 2018.
During the two-week period, the company’s shares will be on full suspension and would not be traded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The share reconstruction exercise which was initialed slated for Friday, March 23, and 27, 2018, “was inconclusive as the registrars were unable to update the register of members of the company during the suspension period.”
From May 23, according to its company secretary, Abayomi Odulana, the shareholding of shareholders of Prestige Assurance will be adjusted “to reflect the terms of the share reduction exercise and subsequently advise the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) to credit shareholders with their new share positions.”
However, in what may be not ruling out the possibility of an extension of the exercise, Odulana hinted that “normal trading in the company’s shares will resume upon confirmation that the share reduction has been completed.”
The NSE had suspended trading and price movement on Prestige Assurance shares between last Friday, March 23 and Tuesday, March 27, 2018 to enable the cancelation about 1.55bn ordinary shares out of its issued and fully paid up share capital under a share reconstruction that seeks to write off N776.511m accumulated retained losses.
Under the share reconstruction proposal, Prestige Assurance is seeking to reduce its share capital from N2.685bn or 5.37bn ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to N1.909 billion or 3.817bn ordinary shares of 50 kobo each in the issued and fully paid up ordinary shares of the company.
“The share capital so reduced will be applied in writing off the capital of the company which is lost or unrepresented by available assets,” according to earlier regulatory filing on the reconstruction.
The noted that the reconstruction, which was approved by shareholders at an annual general meeting on August 18, 2017, will reposition it on a trajectory for subsequent accumulated retained profit while creating more value to its shareholders.
It also will allow the company declare dividend and improve its perception in the market, besides making it more competitive.