Transcorp Hotel Rights Issue Records 99.34% Subscription Rate

By Dipo Olowookere

The rights issue of Transcorp Hotel Plc of 2020 can be said to be very successful going by the level of subscription it recorded.

Last year, Transcorp approached the market to raise funds through the sale of some shares of the company to investors, especially existing shareholders.

The hospitality firm said it wanted N10 billion from investors through the exercise, which opened on Monday, October 5, 2020, and ended on Wednesday, November 11, 2020.

At the rights issue, Transcorp offered for sale a total of 2,659,574,468 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at a unit price of N3.76 on the basis of seven new ordinary shares for every 20 ordinary shares held as at Monday, July 13, 2020.

However, Business Post gathered that only 2,642,124,511 units were taken by shareholders, signifying that the level of subscription was 99.34 per cent.

Last week, these shares sold at the exercise were listed on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), increasing the total issued and fully paid-up shares of Transcorp Hotel from 7,600,403,900 units to 10,242,528,411 units.

Confirming this development, the exchange in a circular said, “2,642,124,511 ordinary shares of Transcorp Hotel were listed on the daily official list of the NSE on Monday, January 18, 2021.

“The additional shares listed on the exchange arose from the company’s rights issue of 2,659,574,468 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N3.76 kobo per share on the basis of seven new ordinary shares for every 20 ordinary shares held as at Monday, July 13, 2020.

“The rights issue was 99.34 per cent subscribed.

“With this listing of the additional 2,642,124,511 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid-up shares of Transcorp Hotel have now increased from 7,600,403,900 to 10,242,528,411 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.”

Transcorp Hotels Plc owns the iconic Transcorp Hilton Abuja and Transcorp Hotels Calabar and the firm, like every other in the sector, has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and recently, the management announced that it was cutting its workforce by 40 per cent, while its senior executive management team will get a pay cut.