Ecobank Converts 819.4 Million Preference Shares to Equities

• Ecobank Converts 819.4 Million Preference Shares to Equities

Holders of 819,424,548 preference shares in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated have indicated their intention to convert the shares into ordinary shares (equities).

ETI, the parent company of the Ecobank Group, disclosed this on Monday in separate letters to the three stock exchanges on which ETI is listed – the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the Ghana Stock Exchange and the West African Stock Exchange.

Once the requisite approvals are obtained, the preference shares would result in 630,325,909 ETI ordinary shares at an implied conversion price of N21.32 per new ordinary share, it said.

By a resolution passed on September 14, 2011, the ETI Board of Directors approved the acquisition of Oceanic Bank International Plc.

In line with the terms on conversion of preference shares recommended to Oceanic shareholders by the Oceanic board, as stated in the scheme of arrangement documents, and approved by Oceanic shareholders, preference shareholders had the right, exercisable at any time between the third anniversary of the issue date and the fifth anniversary of this date, to convert their preference shares into ordinary shares in the company at the rate of one preference share to 0.76923 ordinary share.

Preference shareholders, therefore, had the right to convert their preference shares up to October 31, 2016.

Out of an outstanding of 1,031,515,911 preference shares, as of the end of December 2015, the holders of 819,424,548 such shares exercised their right to convert the shares into ordinary shares in the company.

Qatar National Bank, one of ETI’s major shareholders, with 732,277,056 preference shares, was among the holders that exercised their conversion option.