Four UBA directors purchase shares worth N1.12 billion

Through transactions on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, four directors of United Bank for Africa have bought about 42,336,281 units of the banking group shares, valued at N1.12 billion.

Corporate notices on directors dealing that were submitted to the NGX late on Wednesday revealed this.

In the previous two trading sessions, UBA’s securities topped the NGX volume chart, with 79.98 million units changing hands in 689 trades on Wednesday and 102.23 million units, valued at N2.68 billion, changing hands in 952 trades on Tuesday.

The directors include Ugochukwu Nwaghodoh, an executive director, who bought 10,000,000 shares at an average price of N26.22 per unit, and Muyiwa Akinyemi, the deputy managing director, who bought 20,000,000 units of UBA shares in ten tranches at an average price of N26.46 per unit, bringing his total acquisition to N 529.20m. The total amount of his ten tranche transactions was N262.20 million.

Bili Odum, the Group Company Secretary and Legal Counsel, is one of the other directors. She also purchased 10,000,000 shares of the lender in three transactions at an average price of N26.10 per share. Abdulqadir Bello, a Non-Executive Director, purchased 2,336,281 units on Monday at N26.80, totaling N62.61 million. His transaction was valued at N261 million.

Following the bank’s capitalization effort to reach the new capital benchmark set by the Central Bank of Nigeria, several acquisitions have taken place.

The lender has already said that it will ask shareholders for permission before raising money from the local and foreign capital markets.

In the meantime, eight relatives of Tony Elumelu, the group’s chairman, also purchased 21,169 shares of UBA at a cost of N550,394.

Ogechukwu, Onyekachukwu, Ogochukwu, Nneka, Ugochukwu, Onyinye, Toby, and Awele Elumelu are among the relatives. On Tuesday, all of their shares were purchased for N26 apiece.

Dr. Awele Elumelu purchased 9,624,441 UBA shares in November at an average cost of N20.71. Four tranches of shares were purchased by her: 7,124,446 at N20.65 per share, 1,986,880 at N20.70 per share, 500,000 at N20.75 per share, and 13,115 at NGN20.75 per share. The amount exchanged was roughly N199.32 million.

Wednesday’s trade concluded at N26 per unit, giving UBA a market capitalization of N889.18 billion.