WorldStage– Seplat Energy Plc, an indigenous oil and gas exploration company, notified the market April 20 of Tony Elumelu, Heirs Energies chairman, joining its board as a non-executive director since his January 22 appointment.
Seplat published the board change in the media in then, following Elumelu’s Heirs Energies acquiring over 20.1 percent stake, valued at $500 million, in the former last December.
A price sensitive disclosure, the notice of the January 22 board change, however, didn’t show up on the Nigeria Exchange Group until April 20 when Seplat notified the Exchange and the investing public of its May 20 annual general meeting.
Company Secretary Edith Onwucheka stated in the notice the AGM will, among other activities, approve the appointment of “Mr Tony Elumelu as a Non-Executive Director of the Company”.
The NGX Rulebook states in Rule 13 (1B) that a listed company notify the Exchange “without delay any change in the directorate of the company”.
It’s not clear if the rule permits both the regulator and the company to delay market notification of such sensitive information.
Trading at N6700, according to the Exchange data the day Elumelu joined Seplat’s board, the stock showed no rally. A coordinated media report last week, however, attributed the stock’s April 14 price surge to the Heirs Holdings controlling acquisition.
Seplat’s share price crossed N10,000 mark on April 14, and the reports chalked it up to the “Elumelu Effect”, all of them citing CardinalStone Research .
Elumelu, with his Africapitalist business philosophy, remains a market mover chairing his Heirs Holdings, which owns UBA, Heirs Energies, and the Toni Elumelu Foundation. He also chairs Transcorp Group, owners of Transcorp Hotels and Transcorp Energy.
