Access Bank Shares Fall as Wigwe Buys 6.8 million Units for N46m

By Dipo Olowookere

Share of Access Bank depreciated at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last week as the Managing Director/CEO of the company, Mr Herbert Wigwe, soaked some of the securities from willing sellers.

During the week, the Rivers State-born banker acquired a total of 6,814,458 units of the bank’s equities at the exchange for about N46.4 million.

Last week, when the transactions occurred, the organisation’s stocks closed in red after shedding 0.74 percent week-on-week.

Access Bank shares, which opened for the week at the rate of N6.80 per unit, closed for the week on Friday at N6.75 per share, losing 5 kobo or 0.74 percent in the five-day trading week.

Business Post‘s analysis of the trades carried out by the bank’s head honcho showed that last Monday, Mr Wigwe bought a total of 3,094,853 units of the stocks at a unit price of N6.81, amounting to about N21.1 million and the next day, he added 50,000 units of Access Bank shares to his portfolio, paying about N339,500 for the deal.

On Wednesday, June 17, 2020, the Access Bank boss continued with the acquisition of 2,269,605 units for about N15.5 million at N6.82 each, while the next day, he bought extra 1,400,000 units at N6.81 per unit, amounting to about N9.5 million.

Access Bank is a company listed on the premium board of the exchange and it is one of the big five banks in the country.

The tier-one lender has been attractive to investor, though its dividend payout is one of the lowest among its peers.

For the 2019 financial year, the company paid a dividend of 40 kobo, where the likes of GTBank and Zenith Bank, which belongs to the top five, rewarded their shareholders with N2.50 per share dividend, with UBA paying 80 kobo.

Recall that in January 2020, Mr Wigwe offloaded some of his holdings in the company. In the first month of the year, according to disclosures made by the bank, he sold about 28.9 million shares of the firm worth over N1 billion. This transaction raised eyebrows then, but shares of the company later appreciated at the market.