By Peter Egwuatu
Though insignificant, Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON, may have offloaded about 2.29% (1.151bn units ) of the total outstanding shares of Fidelity Bank Plc.
Vanguard’s investigation reveals that the outstanding shares of Fidelity Bank stood at 50.212 bn, with a market capitalisation of N1.046 trillion.
Meanwhile, the total number of Fidelity Bank’s shares traded last Friday stood at 1,151,332,573 traded in 715 deals at N20.85 per share and valued at N24.005 bn.
A market source said: “The Fidelity Bank’s shares traded on Friday are insignificant to warrant a major shift of ownership for now. AMCON may have sold portions of the shares that were placed as collateral by its debtor(s). You know AMCON is not an investment entity but a debt collector of the federal government. We can’ t really say that it was only AMCON that offloaded the shares, as there was a report (not Vanguard) that stated that a total of 1,140,866,892 units of Fidelity Bank Plc shares were crossed in nine negotiated deals.
The report stated that the trade was facilitated by Apel Asset Management Ltd and CardinalStone Securities Ltd, both of whom acted as intermediaries in the cross-deal”.
Meanwhile, effort to reach the spokesperson of AMCON and Fidelity Bank was unsuccessful, as they did not respond to the message sent to them as at the press time.
Meanwhile, no official statement has been made by the Nigerian Exchange Limited, Group or the bank Though,the source said : “ Due to the insignificant portion sold the seller is not obliged to notify the Exchange. It is only when the stake is about 5% and above; that such transactions could be communicated to the NGX as demanded in the post listing requirement”.
The bulk trading of Fidelity Bank’s shares did not push the market price, rather the price fell by 1.18% to close trading at N20.85 per share from N21.55 per share.
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