NSE cancels trades of UNIC Diversified Holdings Plc

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has announced the outright cancellation of transactions on the shares of Unic Holdings Plc on Friday.

This is coming a day after announcing the suspension of Unic Diversified Holdings Plc (formerly Unic Insurance) in what it explained was to “ensure market integrity.”

The cancellation, the NSE said in a statement, followed an abnormal behaviour in the company’s trading price.

“Kindly be informed that all trades in the security (UNIC) that matched prices outside yesterday’s price band (N0.18 – N0.20) are considered invalid and therefore cancelled. All inconveniences are regretted,” the statement said.

It will be recalled that UNIC’s share price gained an unprecedented 200 per cent at some point during the day, outside of the 10 per cent band +/- allowed by the exchange engine.

The National Insurance Commission on Friday confirmed it has taken over the management of Unic Insurance Plc to re-position the company for better performance.

Rasaq Salami, NAICOM’s spokesman, said the takeover became imperative to rescue the company from distress.

Salami said the commission had subsequently appointed an interim board to manage the affairs of Unic Insurance Plc for the next six months.

The interim board is made up of Samuel Ordu as chairman, Theophilus Eke as managing director, Ifeyinwa Momah and Nicholas Shaiyen.

“The commission gave Ordu and his team six months to do a forensic audit on the financial position.

“Forensic audit would be carried out on the corporate governance failures observed in the course of reviewing the financial statement of the company,” Salami said.