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Chuks Udo Okonta
Fear seemed to becloud one of the top insurance companies in the country as majority shareholders planned to sell their investments to a suitor.
Investigation by Inspenonline revealed that most of the top management staff of the firm are already seeking greener pastures else where as they don’t want to be caught in the policies that may be enacted by the new investor.
The firm which is ranked amongst the leading insurers, is doing were, going by its 2022 financial performance, a development, which would have attracted the suitor.
In recent times, there have being influx of investors, especially foreigner into the insurance industry.
According to findings, the untapped insurance potentials in the country has continued to attract attention of portfolio investors.
As majority shareholders sell their stakes, minority shareholders also seek protection.
National Coordinator Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN) Moses Igbrude, considered foreign incursion into insurance sector as pathetic, stressing that most foreigners only take advantage of the nation’s bad economy, undervalued stocks and the poor exchange rate to acquire insurance companies.
“Our economy is so bad that most of our stocks are undervalued, our exchange rate is so poor, a million dollar will translate to N700 million, then if you have N700 million, in this industry, you can buy and have a stake in insurance companies,” he said.
He opied that not all Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) is good for the Nigerian economy, even as he noted that some of the portfolio investors come to take advantage of the weak laws and economy. ” What they do is buy into firms and delist them from Nigeria Exchange and they become private business and then hid them from the eyes of the government and the next thing, you wouldn’t hear about the companies again”, he said.
Acknowledging the fact that there are still good investors, he appealed to the insurance industry regulatory body, to allow only genuine investors into the industry, even as he urged the commission to put in place process to check activities of the fake ones.
