Universal gets Shareholders’ approval to raise additional capital

From Edet Udoh, Lagos

The Shareholders of the Universal Insurance Plc have given its board approval to go ahead and raise the company’s share capital as required by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

The approval was given at its 49th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos recently.

With this, the company is set to deploy in motion, strategies that would see it raise its share capital to meet the N10 billion recapitalisation requirement as prescribed by NAICOM for the general business category, in the ongoing recapitalization exercise.

The board had sought and obtained the shareholders’ approval to raise the company’s capital through Right Issues, Share Reconstruction, to raise additional equity capital for the company up to the maximum limit of the authorized share capital, whether by way of special placement or public officer with or without a preferen­tial allotment/or rights issue or a combination of any of them, either locally or internationally and upon such terms and conditions as the directors may deem fit in the inter­est of the company and subject to the approval of the regulatory authorities.”

“That in the event of over sub­scription of the offer/issue to capitalise the excess money and allot additional shares to the extent that can be accommodated by the company’s unissued share capital subject to the approval of the regulatory authorities and that the proceeds should be used for the same purpose as the offer/issue.”

According to Mr. Anthony Okocha, the Acting Board Chairman of the company, the Universal Insurance Plc has over 30 billion registered shares and out of which,16 billion has been issued while 14 billion is still warehoused and could be brought up for issuance if need be.

The acting Chairman disclosed that the company has in its kitty, N6.5 billion and would need N3.5 billion to make up for recapitalisation requirement as a general business insurer.

On steps to meet up with the exercise and beat the June 30 2020 deadline, Okocha stated: “More dis­cussion is ongoing but could not be discussed prematurely. We are also looking at Right Issues, the compa­ny is in discussion with core inves­tors and probable foreign influence into your company.”