Great Nigeria Insurance Plc, GNI, 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) in Lagos last week.

According to the company, the reasons for delisting from the NSE are that 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.
Also, 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. While addressing shareholders at the meeting, Chairman of the company, Mr. Bade Aluko, said that 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.

He assured 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. Meanwhile, Aluko said that profit before tax for the 2017 financial year 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.