(Ecofin Agency) - The Nigerian insurance company Consolidated Hallmark, called a special meeting of its shareholders for validation of an increase of its capital by NGN2.5 billion ($6.9 million).

The company’s shareholders are to allow the administrative board to proceed with formalities aimed at obtaining the right to issue new shares to increase its capital from the actual NGN5 billion to NGN7.5 billion.

 The company plans to create 1.13 billion new shares whose nominal value is 50 naira  each but will be sold at 65 naira each during a private placement. For the time being, the identity of the investor(s) concerned by this new operation are not yet known.

This initiative is aimed at helping the institution meet the new capital requirement in the sector in Nigeria before the deadline which is January 2019.  

The operation should be successful if it received the required authorizations since the institution’s financial performances were on the rise during the first nine months of this year with gross premiums of NGN5.4 billion and net profit of NGN356 million.  

In addition, the Nigerian regulator has stopped issuing licenses for cumulated life and non-life segments (the segments in which the company is active). This leads to believe that investors seeking those types of companies to invest in would not hesitate to take the opportunity to do so if they find one such opportunity.

Idriss Linge