I WILL REINVEST 100% OF MY DIVIDENDS IN RIGHT ISSUES – ELUMELU TELLS UBA SHAREHOLDERS
UBA shareholders are being encouraged to reinvest their dividends in the bank’s upcoming rights issue. Tony Elumelu, the bank’s chairman, announced during the Annual General Meeting that he will be reinvesting 100% of his dividends from FY 2023.
Elumelu stated, “I’m advising shareholders, as you get your dividends, reinvest a significant part of it. My group and I, we would be investing 100% of the dividends we get. If we don’t do so, we would be leaving food on the table for others who did not labour for it.”
For FY 2023, UBA paid a final dividend of N78.7 billion, representing N2.3 per ordinary share to its over 277,000 shareholders. Elumelu, the largest individual shareholder, holds about 2.54 billion shares through direct and indirect holdings and will receive approximately N5.85 billion in dividends.
During the AGM on May 24, 2024, shareholders approved the proposed rights issue to issue 10,800,578,634 new shares, increasing the bank’s share capital from N17.1 billion to N22.5 billion. This allows shareholders to reinvest their dividends to raise funds for the bank.
While the offer price of the rights issue is yet to be determined, with UBA shares trading around N19 as of May 24, 2024, it is estimated that the offer price will be around N15 per share. If the new shares are fully issued at this price, the bank will raise N162 billion. With a current minimum paid-up capital of N115.8 billion, UBA needs to raise up to N384.2 billion to meet the N500 billion minimum capital requirement for an international banking license, suggesting that more fundraising will be necessary.
Elumelu outlined the recapitalization strategy, which includes a rights issue followed by a private placement and a public offering, stating, “Recapitalization is not an issue at all. Three stages, rights, private placement, and public offering. Although, I highly doubt that it will get to the public offer.”