SEC cancels acquisition meeting of Continental Reinsurance, orders fresh parley
Stories by Babajide Okeowo
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has cancelled a court-ordered meeting that approved the acquisition of minority shares by the majority core investor in Continental Reinsurance Plc. The Commission ordered the company to reconvene another court-ordered meeting for consideration of the proposed acquisition.
The board of Continental Reinsurance had announced that it had received an offer from CRe African Investments Limited (CRe Investments), a major investor in the Nigerian company, to acquire all the outstanding and issued shares of Continental Reinsurance.
At the court-ordered meeting held on December 20, 2018, the company secretariat had filed that shareholders approved the takeover bid launched by CRe Investments, which will turn Continental Reinsurance into a wholly-owned subsidiary and lead to delisting of its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
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Aligning with the protests over irregularities by some shareholders, SEC cancelled the December 20, 2018 court-ordered meeting and directed the company to reconvene another meeting.
The NSE, which had fully suspended trading in the shares of Continental Reinsurance on Monday, December 31, 2018, last week lifted suspension on the shares citing the cancellation of the court-ordered meeting upon which the application for suspension of trading was based.
The NSE had placed full suspension on the shares of Continental Reinsurance at the instance of the stockbroker to the reinsurance company; Chapel Hill Denham Securities Limited, which had sought to proceed with the final phase of the acquisition process.
