By Stanley Onyeka, Lagos
Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO Plc), has announced the successful admission of its ordinary shares to the equity shares (International Commercial Companies Secondary Listing) category of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The listing enables it to also trade the shares on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
By this feat, GTCO Plc, Africa’s leading and most profitable Financial Services Group, has recorded yet another significant milestone in its growth and expansion journey.
This historic achievement makes GTCO Plc, the 1st financial services institution in West Africa to dual list its ordinary shares on both the Nigerian and London stock exchanges.
Subject to certain criteria, it is expected that the Shares will be transferrable between the two exchanges, GTCO said in a statement.
The admission follows the successful pricing of its fully marketed offering (The Offering) on the LSE to raise gross proceeds of $105million in exchange for 2.29 billion of new ordinary shares in the company, which was supported by a strong book of high-quality, long-term institutional investors.
Concurrent with the offering, the Company also gave notice of its intention to cancel the listing of its existing GDRs on the certificates representing certain securities (depositary receipts) category of the Official List of the United Kingdom FCA and the admission to trading of GDRs on the LSE’s main market for listed securities.
This builds on the momentum of the successful first tranche of its equity capital raise programme in July 2024, which secured ₦209 billion.
GTCO said it will deploy the proceeds from the offering to strengthen its capital base, meet its recapitalization target, and fund strategic expansion across high-growth markets and priority sectors within and outside Nigeria.
It is equally expected that admission and unconditional dealing in the shares will become effective on or before 8.00 a.m. (UK time) tomorrow July 9th under the ticker “GTHC”.
Following the cancellation of the GDRs listing, the Company intends to change the ticker symbol for the Shares from “GTHC” to “GTCO” and will issue a separate announcement in due course to that effect.
GTCO will deploy the proceeds from the offering to strengthen its capital base, meet its recapitalization target, and fund strategic expansion across high-growth markets and priority sectors within and outside Nigeria.
Commenting on the LSE Listing, the Group Chief Executive Officer, GTCO, Segun Agbaje, said: “Today marks a major milestone—not just for GTCO, but for the future we see for African financial institutions on the global stage.
“We are incredibly proud to be the 1st Financial Services Institution in West Africa to list our ordinary shares on London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities, and even more honored by the trust placed in us by the investing community.
“For us, this was not just about raising capital. It was about validating the strength of our franchise, the clarity of our strategy, and the discipline with which we execute.”
He further said: “I would like to thank everyone who made this possible—our advisors and legal teams, our longstanding shareholders, the regulators both in Nigeria and in the UK, as well as the Nigerian government for creating an environment that supports our bold ambition and vision to be Africa’s leading financial services institution.”
GTCO’s fully marketed offering attracted long-term institutional capital, reflecting investor confidence in the Group’s fundamentals, governance, and strategic outlook.
It also signals improving market sentiment, buoyed by ongoing economic reforms by the Federal Government and a return to traditional orthodox monetary policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which have gone a long way to stabilising the macroeconomic environment and gradually restoring investor confidence in Nigeria’s long-term prospects.
