United Bank for Africa has sought the approval of the Nigerian Exchange Limited for its proposed rights issue.
According to a market bulletin signed by the Head of Issuer Regulation Department of the NGX RegCo, Godstime Iwenekhai, on Tuesday, the lender applied its stockbrokers, United Capital Securities Limited.
The proposed rights issue includes “Six Billion, Eight Hundred and Thirty-Nine Million, Eight Hundred and Eighty-Four Thousand, Two Hundred and Seventy-Four (6,839,884,274) ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N35.00 per share based on one new ordinary share for every five ordinary shares held as at the close of business on Tuesday, 5 November 2024,” part of the notice read.
In the last trading sessions on the NGX, the shares of UBA had traded as high as N35.05 and a low of N29 each. It closed trading on Wednesday at N31.55 each following a 9.99 per cent dip. The shares of the lender have been seeing plenty of action on the exchange in recent days.
At the end of the third quarter, UBA reported that its gross earnings appreciated by 83.2 per cent year-on-year to N2.39tn from N1.31tn in the same period of 2023.
UBA’s net interest income, which stood at N443bn at the end of the third quarter in 2023, rose by 149 per cent to N1.10tn in Q3 2024.
Profit before tax went up by 20.2 per cent to N603.48bn from N502.09bn in Q3 2023, while profit after tax also rose by 16.9 per cent to N525.31bn from N449.26bn recorded a year earlier.
The lender’s total assets rose to N31.80tn, representing a 54.0 per cent increase over the N20.65tn recorded at the end of December 2023.
In a statement accompanying the results, the bank said that it had benefitted from its technology-led initiatives targeted at improving customer experience over the past few years.
Total deposits rose to N26.50tn, representing a 52.7 per cent rise, up from N17.355tn at the end of the last financial year.