Nigerian Exchange Group Insiders Offload Almost N1 Billion Worth of Shares

Substantial Shareholders in the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGXGroup) offloaded almost N1 billion worth of shares at the exchange floor of the Nigerian stock market within two months.

This was announced via the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) platform accessed by Investors King and signed by the company secretary, Mojisola Adeola.

Investors king gathered that Woodland Asset Management Company Ltd, an investment manager company sold its 200,000 shares at N21.90 a share at an estimated N4, 380,000 on the 2^nd of September, 2022. The same company disposed another 240,000 shares at N19.94 per share worth N4,785,600 on the 4^th of October, 2022.

On September 22nd 2022, Cardinal Stone Partners Ltd, an investment banking firm sold its 25,423,999 shares at a price of N18.00 a unit to divest a total sum of N457,631, 982.

Similarly, Equity Capital Solutions Ltd, a licensed capital market operator sold its 50,000 shares at N20.00 per share on the 8^th of September, 2022. Amounting to N1,000,000 in divestment. Also, Equity Capital Solutions offloaded another 150,000 shares at a price of N19.90 per share (N2,985,000). To bring the company’s total divestment within the period under review to N3,985,000.

Miri Strategic Emerging Markets Fund LP, a Hedge Fund based in Massachusetts sold its 1,500,000 shares at N19.76 per share, amounting to N29,640,000 on the 16^th of September, 2022, and sold another 23,500,000 shares at N16.77 per share at an estimated value of N394,095,000 on the 28^th of September, 2022.

Bringing it all together, the amount of the total shares offloaded by the substantial shareholders of the Nigerian Exchange Group is 51.064 million valued at N894.5 million.

NGXGROUP was listed in October 2021 following demutualisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). NGXGROUP listed 1,964,115,918 at N16.15 a unit before the shares took off, gaining N7.4 within four days of its listing. Since then the stock has been on the decline following a series of weak economic fundamentals.

Insiders, the company’s top executive with a substantial stake in the firm, have now started selling off their holdings to avert further catastrophe ahead of the 2023 national elections.

Nigeria’s Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) instituted insider disclosure to enforce transparency across the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) by alerting minority investors and stakeholders in general to the activities of companies’ executives.

Here is the logic, activities of executives can give clues as to happenings within an organisation. For instance, the aggressive selling of NGXGROUP shares indicated possible issues and challenges going forward or a lack of confidence in the company’s future considering that top executives with insider knowledge of the company’s financial position, deals and other vitals are the ones selling off their holdings.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Exchange Group released its notice of Board Audit and Statutory Audit Meeting informing the Nigerian Exchange Limited and the investing public that an emergency meeting of the Board Risk and Audit Committee to consider the third quarter unaudited financial statement of the Nigerian Exchange will hold today, October 24, 2022.

Following its consideration and the board’s approval, the third quarter unaudited financial statement of the exchange group will be submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nigerian Exchange on October 30, 2022.