Herbert Wigwe, the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of Access Bank acquired an extra 3.1 million shares worth N21.4 million. This was made known in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The transaction which was filed in disclosure was done through an indirect holding by Tengen Holdings Ltd in Mauritius.
According to the Notification of insider dealing, by the Nigerian Stock Exchange, It is legal for Directors of a company that is listed to purchase shares. However, there are guidelines and bylaws issued by regulators for such a purchase. One of the bylaws is that the trades must be disclosed.
In a statement released on the Nigerian Stock Exchange website and signed by Company Secretary, Sunday Ekwochi, the lender said Mr. Herbert Wigwe, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank, purchased 3,094,853 shares at N6.81 per share and another 50,000 shares at N6.79 per share.
The transaction details of the purchase by Herbert Wigwe which was disclosed are as follows:
Herbert Wigwe purchased 3,094,853 shares of the Tier-1 Bank, at the price worth of N6.81 on the 15th of June, 2020. The next day, 16th of June, 2020 Wigwe also bought another 50,000 shares at the price of N6.79.
The transactions which were broken down in two had a total of 3,144,859 purchase of shares. The purchases were done indirectly in the month of June alone.
It was clearly indicated that the purchase of the 3,144,859 shares was from Herbert Wigwe’s indirect holding via Tengen Holdings Ltd in Mauritius.
The sum total of the whole transactions was N21,415,448.93.
Similarly, Herbert Wigwe sold 55.6 million ordinary shares that he held indirectly. He also sold another 28.86 million shares for a price worth N297.82 million.
Keeping this in perspective means Herbert Wigwe relieved 6.81% of his stake in the bank. Wigwe has the highest shares in the bank, among 15 members of the Board of Directors (BOD). He directly owns 201.23 million shares and indirectly owns 1.24 billion shares.
What To Know About Herbert Wigwe and Access Bank
Herbert Wigwe and his partner Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede acquired Access Bank as a small commercial bank in 2002. It was the 65th out of 89 banks in Nigeria.
Access bank’s share price as of yesterday stood at N6.85, down from its 2020 year high of N11.6 per share. Access Bank has a market capitalization of 243.5 billion and a net asset of N635 billion.
According to a report by The Banker Magazine in 2015, Access Bank is one of the top five banks in Nigeria. They also, ranked among the top 500 global banks. It currently serves over 6.5 million account-holders, through 350 branches. They also have more than 1,500 ATMs in major centres across Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK.
Wigwe is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN – FCA). A Fellow of The Institute of Credit Administration, and an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
In addition, Wigwe also served as the Chairman of Access Bank Ghana Limited, Access Investment & Securities Limited. Also, he chaired Central Securities and Clearing System (CSCS) and is the current Chairman of Access Bank (UK) Limited. He is a board member of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company and a member of the Advisory Board for Friends Africa.
