By Dipo Olowookere
One of the major shareholders of Aradel Holdings Plc, Capital Alliance Private Equity IV Limited, has sold off some stocks of the company.
A notice from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited disclosed that the firm, which owns over 5 per cent equity stake in the energy company, sold a total of 24,717,353 units of Aradel shares valued at N19.4 billion.
The equities were offloaded in three trading sessions and the reason was to create liquidity for the company’s stocks at the local bourse.
Business Post reports that companies on the NGX are required to maintain a free float of 20 per cent to create market liquidity for the shares.
With this, members of the public can have enough stocks of the listed firms to trade on the stock exchange.
Aradel Holdings joined the country’s flagship stock exchange on Monday, October 14, 2024, by the introduction of 4.34 billion shares at N702.69 per unit worth N3.05 trillion.
According to details of the transactions, Capital Alliance sold 18,000,000 units at N772.90 each on October 14 worth N13,9 billion, and the next day, it further offloaded 6,716,840 units at a unit price of N816.07 valued at N5.5 billion, before selling 513 units at N820 per share valued at N420,660 on October 16.
Before listing its equities on the NGX, Aradel Holdings was one of the high fliers at the NASD over-the-counter (OTC) Securities Exchange.
Its exit from the platform reduced the NASD value by N3 trillion. It left the alternative stock market after over a decade of trading its shares there.
It is still the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis on the NASD exchange with the sale of 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Adedapo Adesanya