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Nigeria’s biggest lender by market value GTCO is pursuing a secondary listing in London, aimed at boosting its potential for tapping international markets for additional capital, while improving the accessibility of its shares to investors abroad.
The financial institution’s history with the UK equity market reaches back to 2007, when GTB, its commercial banking arm, conducted a global depository receipt (GDR) offer of $750 million.
The securities were later admitted to the main market of the London Stock Exchange as the first of its kind by an African bank and a Nigerian company, with JP Morgan as the depositary bank.
This time around, the corporation is taking its ambition beyond what GDRs offers, hoping that a proper open-market listing will open the door to bigger trade and enhance visibility.
GDRs mostly allow institutional investors to own shares in foreign companies and trade them on their local stock exchanges, but they lack the capacity to accommodate various kinds of investors and attract multiple transaction flows, unlike a regular listing.
“Accordingly, the company is seeking to amend the listing of its securities on the London Stock Exchange from GDRs to Shares,” GTCO said in a note published on Thursday by the Nigerian Exchange, where it has primary listing.
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“It intends to apply to the FCA for all of the ordinary shares of the company (the “Shares”) to be admitted to the equity shares (international commercial companies secondary listing) category of the official list of the FCA and to the London Stock Exchange for all of the shares to be admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities,” it added.
READ ALSO: GTCO reshuffles board, appoints ex-CBN deputy governor as chair
The banking group is giving up its GDRs as a listing option as activity on the securities has been weak, having recorded low transaction volumes for a while. It has assured investors of stronger liquidity, once share trading through the planned cross-listing starts. 9 July has been announced as the commencement date for transacting in the shares.
In January, GTCO announced the completion of the first phase of its recapitalisation programme, aimed at meeting the N500 billion minimum paid-up capital requirements for Nigerian banks with international authorisation by March 2026.
The offer sourced N209.4 billion from domestic retail investors. The second tranche, which is proposed to attract international institutional investors, is scheduled for this year, making the new London listing potentially a strategic move to draw as much foreign interest as possible.
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