Nigeria’s largest lender by total asset, Access Bank Limited, the banking subsidiary of Access Holdings Plc, has successfully beat the new capital requirement and the deadline with its oversubscribed right issue.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the new capital base for banks with international authorisation to N500 billion and set March 2026 as the deadline for compliance.
Access Bank has increased its capital base above the target set by the CBN ahead of the deadline due to its oversubscription rights issue offer to shareholders.
In a regulatory filing, the financial services group announced the successful completion of its rights issue, raising a total of N351,009,103,017.25 from the issuance of 17,772,612,811 ordinary shares at a subscription price of N19.75 Kobo per share.
Details revealed that shareholders pumped more than N371.765 billion by exercising their rights in the latest capital raise round by the group. Details from its regulatory filing showed that a total of 24,181 applications for 18,823,585,235 ordinary shares valued at N371,765,808,391.25 were received in respect of the rights issue.
However, 18,796,809,419 ordinary shares valued at N371,236,986,025.25 were processed successfully, having been confirmed as valid.
The document submitted on the Nigerian Exchange stated that 41,650,447 shares valued at N822,596,328.25 were disqualified by the Central Bank of Nigeria over breach of procedural requirement.
Therefore, 18,755,158,972 shares valued at N370,414,389,697.00 were accepted, having been confirmed as valid and verified by the CBN.
Access launched its rights issue of 17,772,612,811 shares at N19.75 per share on the basis of one (1) new ordinary share for every two (2) ordinary shares held on June 7, 2024, opened on July 8, 2024, and closed on August 23, 2024.
The successful completion of the transaction positions Access Bank Plc as the first bank to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s N500 billion minimum capital requirements for banks with international authorisation well ahead of the March 2026 regulatory deadline.
With the success, the bank’s share capital will increase to N600 billion, N100 billion above the regulatory minimum requirement. The group said all surplus monies due to the subscribers of securities under this Rights Issue would be returned not later than January 2, 2025.
Source: Market Forces Africa
