By Dipo Olowookere
The earnings season for the first quarter of 2020 is already here and companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) are preparing to file their financial statements from this month.
During this period, a certain category of investors is prohibited from trading shares of quoted firms. This is called the closed period and violation of this rule, which is called insider trading, comes with heavy sanctions.
The set of people forbidden to trade shares in the closed period are directors, persons discharging managerial responsibility, employees with sensitive information, advisers and consultants of the companies and their connected persons.
On Thursday, FBN Holdings, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, announced that it would on closed period from Friday, April 10, 2020 till 24 hours after the accounts are filed with the exchange.
It further said it board will have a meeting on Friday, April 17, 2020 to consider and approve the its financial statements for the period ended March 31, 2020.
On its part, Fidelity Bank said its board will gather on Thursday, April 24, 2020 for its unaudited Q1 2020 earnings. As a result, it has entered a closed period from April 1, until 24 hours after the release of the results.
“The bank had earlier communicated to its insiders, a closed period relating to trading in the shares of the bank from April 1, 2020 until 24 hours after the bank’s unaudited accounts for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 is released to the public,” a notice signed by the Company Secretary, Ezinwa Unuigboje, stated.
For United Capital, its board will meet in Lagos on Friday, April 17, 2020 to consider among other things the company’s Q1 2020 results.
In view of this, United Capital has declared a closed period for trading in the shares of the company from Thursday, April 2, 2020 until the release of the accounts.
GTBank, which has also announced a closed period for Q1 2020 from April 7, stated that its “board would be meeting on April 22, 2020 subject to the restriction of activities imposed by the authorities in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The lender further said “subject to the said restrictions, attendance via electronic channels would be an option.”
Another firm, Lafarge Africa, commenced its closed period from Wednesday, April 8, 2020 until the unaudited financial statement for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 is released on the floor of the NSE. The company said its board will meet on Thursday, April 23, 2020 to consider the Q1 earnings.
On its part, Transcorp has asked all its insiders desist from trading the company’s stocks from April 15, 2020 up to 24 hours after the release of the results.
The board is scheduled to have its meeting on April 30, 2020 to consider among other things the unaudited financial statements of the company for Q1 2020.
For Access Bank, its board will gather on Thursday, April 23, 2020 for the first quarter earnings. In view of this, a closed period has been declared and this started on April 9, 2020 and will last until the results are announced.
Adedapo Adesanya