Rights Issue fully subscribed, says CHI

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc has said its recent rights issue was fully taken up by its shareholders.

The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, CHI Plc, Mr Eddie Efekoha, said this in a statement on Sunday entitled ‘Rights issue offer: CHI Plc records 100 per cent subscription.’

The company said it offered by way of rights issue 2,032,500,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at 52 kobo per share. It said the result of the offer, which closed on June 8, 2020 and had just been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, showed a 100 per cent subscription.

CHI said, “The success recorded by the company in spite of the prevailing tough economic environment from the COVID-19 pandemic is a demonstration of high confidence of the shareholders in the company.

“Details of the basis of allotment as approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that 99 shareholders who were provisionally allotted 681,465,926 ordinary shares accepted their rights in full and were fully allotted accordingly.

“Additionally, out of those that accepted their rights in full, 68 shareholders applied for additional shares totalling 1,289,699,021 ordinary shares and were allotted 1,289,699,021 from the renounced rights, making the offer 100 per cent allotted.”

CHI noted that the successful outcome of the rights issue was a significant boost to the company’s quest to meet the new capital regime announced by the National Insurance Commission.

The new minimum capital requirement to operate as a general insurance business in Nigeria was raised from N3bn to N5bn by end of December 31, 2020 and to further increase to N10bn by September 20, 2021.

Efekoha said, “It is great to see investors’ confidence and trust in our company being exhibited with the full subscription of the rights offer, with several shareholders taking up their rights fully and applying for additional units at a time when investors’ appetite is dampened due to the ravaging pandemic.

“The rights issue is the first in the series of steps that will put our company on the track of achieving not just our recapitalisation objectives, but also the growth strategy as a group.

“We at CHI Plc are particularly happy with the positive response to the offer and would like to thank all our shareholders for their belief in the board and management of the organisation to always deliver excellent performance.”

The company said in recent years, it had proactively raised additional capital to strengthen its operations through rights issue and private placement totalling about N1.2bn, both of which were fully subscribed.