No Trading In ADB Shares For Three Days As Shareholders Drop

From today, July 17, 2018, investment brokers and other parties interested in the trading of shares of ADB, cannot engage in the service.

It follows the suspension of trading activities of ADB by the managers of the Ghana Stock Exchange for three days.

The Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Kofi Yamoah disclosed this decision to Citi Business News and said it is to reduce any apprehension among investors due to the annulment of shares in ADB.

The Bank of Ghana on Monday, July 16, 2018 annulled the shares of four institutional investors of ADB.

According to the central bank, the activities of the shareholders flouted laid down rules which needed to be resolved to prevent it from cascading to the rest of the financial sector.

“Basically the announcement is saying that some liquidity support that went to the bank is the same money that were used to purchase the shares. Our suspension of trading is to allow information to seep through to all stakeholders; where there is information asymmetry both the market and investors could be abused,” he said.

Mr. Yamoah added, “So between now and by the close of trading on Thursday, we believe that there will be sufficient time for information to be sieved for people to seek clarity and on the basis of that on Friday morning, trading resumes.”

The central bank's statement implicated Belstar Capital, Starmount Development Company, EDC Investment Limited as well as SIC-Financial Services Limited for sidestepping regulations in their acquisition and ownership of shares in ADB.

For instance, the regulator mentioned that Belstar and Starmount capitalized on Unibank's liquidity support from the BoG to purchase the shares.

This it said had also been facilitated by the association between the two investors and unibank.

The latest development also comes four months after adb dismissed claims that unibank has acquired majority stake in the former.

The regulators are however expected to work out issues to reduce any negative implication of the announcement on the financial sector.

Meanwhile, adb has also suspended its Annual General Meeting originally scheduled for Wednesday, July 18, 2018.