WorldStage Newsonline– The Tuesday 18 August 2020 disclosure by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that the Managing Director of Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Abubakar Suleima purchased 750,000 units of the bank’s stocks at N1.32 may have contravened the Exchange rule on rule on Dealing by Insiders by the late disclosure of the transaction.
Temitayo Adegoke, Company Secretary in the notice to NSE indicated that the transaction took place on 1st, July, 2020, while the disclosure was published about 49 days later despite the two days stipulated by the Exchange.
The NSE in a ‘Circular on Notification of Share Dealing by Insiders’ dated 15 January 2020 http://www.nse.com.ng/Listings-site/corporate-disclosure-site/Documents/Circular%20on%20Notification%20of%20Share%20Dealing%20by%20Insiders.pdf clarified that “Rule 17.15(c): Disclosure of Dealings in Issuers’ Shares, Rulebook of The Exchange, 2015 (Issuers’ Rules) provides that all directors, persons discharging managerial responsibility and persons closely connected to them as well as all insiders of the Issuer shall notify the Issuer in writing through the Company Secretary of the occurrence of all transactions conducted on their own account in the shares of the Issuer on the day on which the transaction occurred and the Issuer shall maintain a record of such This document is classified as: DC3 – Authorised Use Only – CONFIDENTIAL USE 3 transactions which shall be provided to The Exchange within two (2) business days of The Exchange making a request in that regard.”
Sterling Bank Plc, which is a full service national commercial bank is licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Its shares trade under the Banking sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange with the symbol STERLNBANK.
Trading opened on Sterling Bank stock at N1.15 per share on Monday at the NSE and appreciated by 0.04 per cent to N1.19 as at 1.13PM Nigerian time.
*Note: Initial headline edited.
