The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has revealed that about 163 million ordinary shares worth N5.15 billion have been placed on securities lending platform for borrowing by investors.
The shares of leading companies such as Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc, Zenith Bank International Plc, MTN Nigeria Plc and Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR) Plc were deposited by investors and available for borrowing by any investor.
GTB is Nigeria’s largest financial institution by market capitalisation. Zenith Bank is a leading tier 1 bank and second most capitalised bank.
MTN Nigeria is the sectoral leader for the telecoms sector while DSR, a member of Aliko Dangote’s Dangote Group, is the largest and only quoted sugar company.
Securities lending is the process of lending and borrowing of shares and bonds by investors for a period under an agreed arrangement.
Traditionally, the borrower will provide acceptable collateral to the lender in the form of cash or other acceptable securities of equal but often greater value than the lent securities to protect the lender against any default by the borrower.The borrower must return the securities at the end of the period.
According to the report, a total of 31.1 million ordinary shares of GTBank valued at N899 million were available for lending as at the beginning of this week.
Also, a total of 77.333 million ordinary shares of Zenith Bank worth N1.70 billion were available. A total of 11.196 million ordinary shares of MTN worth N1.84 billion were available while a total of 43 million ordinary shares of DSR worth N714 million were placed for borrowing.
