UPDATED: GTCO becomes Nigeria’s first banking institution to list on London Stock Exchange

Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Nigeria’s biggest financial institution by market value, had its 36.4 billion ordinary shares admitted to the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Wednesday morning for immediate trading and dealing, according to a statement on its website.

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Worth over N2.9 trillion in Lagos, where it has its primary listing, the group gained entry into the LSE’s main market for listed equities to kick off trade after scaling the regulatory hurdles of the top watchdog for the UK financial markets.

“The Company announces that its entire issued share capital, consisting of 36,425,229,514 Shares, has today been admitted to the equity shares (international commercial companies secondary listing) category of the Official List of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority,” GTCO said in the statement seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

The secondary listing makes GTCO Nigeria’s first financial institution to list in the London main market, joining the ranks of local energy giant Seplat and telecommunications powerhouse Airtel Africa, who years ago established their presence on the bourse.

Recapitalisation drive

The rush to meet a minimum capital requirement for Nigerian lenders with international authorisation is driving the banking holding company to turn to London to cross-list its shares, which could open it up to new markets to tap foreign capital.

An equity offering last Thursday helped the firm source $105 million, 5 per cent above target, from institutional investors, putting it on track to scale up its core capital to half a trillion naira minimum by March 2026.

The capital raise priced each share at N70 ($0.05) and sold 2.3 billion ordinary shares at a 15 per cent discount to the opening price for the day in Lagos.

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In January, the group announced the outcome of a local share sale, the first phase of the recapitalisation, where it raised N209 billion from retail investors.

Prior to the listing, the company traded in London through global depository receipts (GDRs), a financial instrument that enables investors to hold shares in a foreign company and trade in them on the stock exchanges of their own countries.

Since that listing option mostly appeals to institutional investors, the GDRs issued by GTCO, according to the company, had been unable to attract transaction flows from diverse investors and sources, unlike a regular open-market stock listing.

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Last week, it published a circular asking holders to exchange every GDR for 50 ordinary shares for inclusion among the shares that would be quoted on Wednesday (today).

“Following the cancellation of the listing of GDRs, the company intends to change the ticker symbol for the Shares from “GTHC” to “GTCO,” the banking group said in the same statement co-published by the LSE.

GTCO’s listing comes at a time when lots of companies (as many as 213 since 2016 according to the Confederation of British Industry) are deserting the LSE to either list elsewhere or adopt a private ownership structure. Brexit-related challenges, among others, have fuelled the exodus.