Great Nigeria Insurance Delists from Stock Exchange

Great Nigeria Insurance Plc has voluntarily delisted from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) following the unanimous decision of its shareholders at the company’s Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) held yesterday in Lagos.

The company gave the following reasons for the voluntary delisting exercise:

• Over the past five years, there is little or no trading activity on the shares held by the minority shareholders and also considerable fall in trading volumes over the last 12 months in the March 2017 to March 2018 period.
• Shareholders are not benefitting from the continued listing as they are not getting any exit opportunity and their investments have been locked up in the Exchange. The company also is not benefitting as its shares continue to trade at a significant discount on the intrinsic value.
• The delisting will afford the company the opportunity to carry out an imminent corporate restructuring exercise to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the market and larger economy.

Great Nigeria Insurance insisted that the voluntary delisting will not cause any loss of business to the company as there are similar unlisted insurance companies that are commanding significant share of the insurance market without being quoted on the NSE.

The company also promised to give shareholders the opportunity of remaining with the company or have the choice of exit with full compensation.

Mr. Bade Aluko, the Chairman of Great Nigeria Insurance Plc, commended the performance of the company in 2017 as Profit Before Tax rose by 202 percent to N449.7 million while the Gross Premium Written grew by 36.59 percent to N3.02 billion from N2.21 billion recorded in 2016.

The total assets as at December 31, 2017 also moved to N10.12 billion as against N10 billion in the same period of 2016.

Mrs. Cecilia Osipitan, Managing Director/CEO of Great Nigeria Insurance expressed confidence that the company’s focus on digital optimisation will translate into key strategic benefits in the coming years.

“Since the global trend now tilts towards digital lifestyle, it is imperative that as a forward-looking business entity, we push more aggressively to harness opportunities within the digital space. Therefore, to prove support for our retail expansion, we rolled out our improved GNIOnGO digital platform with a view to ensure seamless accessibility of our range of retail products.”

Going forward, the company said: “The operational focus of the leadership of Great Nigeria Insurance Plc in the last few years has been to create a strong foundation upon which the full potential of the firm can be realised, creating significant value to its highly esteemed shareholders and building a business that is poised to be one of Nigeria’s top 10 insurance firms. To achieve this lofty goal, the firm is committed to putting the right processes in place, deepening the technology of its operations, continous training and retraining of staff, further strengthening corporate governance and building a base that would ensure that the legacy of this business would continually be upheld.”

Aluko insisted that successful completion of the delisting process will herald value creation for shareholders of the company.