SEC to force Finbank to list 2008TO LIST OVERDUE 2008 PUBLIC OFFER

In the consideration of mainstream investment community the public offer conducted by Finbank, (known at the time of the offer as First Inland Bank) has become one of the most storied public offers in the annals of the nation’s capital market activities. So many things seemed to have gone wrong with the offer climaxing, last […]

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SEC TO FORCE FINBANK TO LIST OVERDUE 2008 PUBLIC OFFER

In the consideration of mainstream investment community the public offer conducted by Finbank, (known at the time of the offer as First Inland Bank) has become one of the most storied public offers in the annals of the nation’s capital market activities. So many things seemed to have gone wrong with the offer climaxing, last week, in the management of the Securities and Exchange Commission asking companies and entities that were part of the January 2008 public offer to meet with it at the Board Room of the SEC Tower in Abuja.

Though Fortune&Class Weekly could not access the conclusions of the meeting last Friday, the major item on the agenda was to discuss the reason for the delay in the listing of the shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the shares of FirstInland Bank Plc after the SEC had granted approval of allotment in June 2008.

Those invited to the meeting were: FirstInland Bank Plc, FirstInland Capital Ltd, Furtuerview Financial Services Ltd, Greenwich Trust Ltd, BGL Securities Ltd and Integrated Trust & Investment Ltd. Others were Sterling Capital Markets Ltd, Oceanic Bank Int`l Plc, Skye Bank Plc and FirstInland Securities & Assets Management Ltd. Deap Trust Investment Ltd and FinBank Registrars Ltd were also invited.

Most stock commentators insisted that the FirstInland Bank offer witnessed so much slow down at every point of its scheduled activation that people could no longer adduce reasons for what is happening to the offer.

The dispatch of the share certificates of the offer did not commence until November, 10 clear months after the offer was concluded and four months after allotment was cleared and approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many investors that bought into the public offer still protest strongly that they are yet to collect their certificates.

Since January 2009, one year after the conclusion of the offer and with the non-listing of the shares sold during the offer, speculations had rented the air about the fears of the bank getting its shares listed at a time when general stock prices are falling.

“It would seem that with the intervention of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the limiting factor to the listing of the shares sold during the public offer may be significant, a source said