Transcorp, Skye, Diamond Bank stocks top losers’ chart

The share prices of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, Skye Bank Plc and Diamond Bank Plc plunged on Monday as the equities market lost N14.24bn at the close of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Diamond Bank Plc and Skye Bank Plc slumped for the straight third day after the Central Bank of Nigeria stepped in to remove Skye’s top management a week ago.

A total of 275.363 million shares worth N3.442bn exchanged hands in 4,865 deals.

The shares of Transcorp depreciated by N0.15 (9.38 per cent) to close at N1.45 from N1.60.

Skye Bank plummeted 9.2 per cent to 79 kobo, a fresh all-time low by the close of trading, and Diamond Bank slid by eight per cent to N1.85, the lowest since May 19.

Skye’s stock has fallen by 25 per cent since the July 4 intervention by the central bank.

But the new Chairman of Skye Bank, Mr. Muhammad Ahmad, on Friday, said the intervention of the CBN in the bank was to correct observed corporate governance issues under the old board.

He said the subsequent reconstitution of the board of the bank by the CBN was not to take over the bank.

Ahmed made the clarification while addressing stockbrokers on the floor of the NSE where the new board of the bank had gone to provide information on recent developments in the bank.

According to him, the CBN does not own the bank and has not taken over the bank.

He, however, explained that the ownership of the bank remained in the hands of the shareholders.

Ahmad stressed that the central bank was fully behind the bank and would support it to fully stabilise.

Ahmad, a former director-general of the National Pension Commission, further reassured the bank’s customers and investors that the bank was not distressed but only had corporate governance issues under the old board.

He said the bank’s fundamentals remained strong and that it remained one of Nigeria’s leading retail banks.

Also commenting, the new Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, said the management team and the board would work to achieve value enhancement for shareholders, customers and other stakeholders by bringing the cost-income ratio to acceptable levels, improve the risk assets quality and work towards increasing the liquidity and capital adequacy of the bank.

The CBN had recently approved the reconstitution of the board of Skye Bank with the appointment of Ahmad and Abiru as the new chairman and managing director of the bank, respectively.

Other members of the reconstituted board are Bayo Sanni, Idris Yakubu, Markie Idowu and Abimbola Izu, all of whom were serving in the executive director capacity of the bank before now.

The bank, which is Nigeria’s eighth biggest bank, grew to systemically important size after it acquired Mainstreet Bank in 2014.