Investors scramble for Fidelity Bank’s offers

Stanley Ihedigbo

Investors are literally scrambling for shares of Fidelity Bank, as the leading commercial bank’s capital raising continues to gather momentum among all categories of investors.

Investors’ appetite for Fidelity Bank is shown in massive subscriptions to its ongoing rights and public offers and voluminous trading at the stock market.

Current weekly report shows that Fidelity Bank was the most active stock at the stock market, outperforming the banking sector and the overall market.

Fidelity Bank recorded a turnover of 1.73 billion shares worth N18.27 billion in 1,579 deals to emerge atop the activities chart for the week.

This implies that Fidelity Bank accounted for 51 per cent and 35 per cent of total volume and value traded during the week. Total turnover for the week at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) stood at 3.39 billion shares worth N52.30 billion in 44,814 deals.

In what underlined the fact that transactions in Fidelity Bank was driven by positive investors’ sentiment, the bank’s share price combined the huge turnover with appreciation.

Contrary to the overall negative performance of the market and the banking sector, Fidelity Bank’s share price rose by 0.05 per cent to N10.75 per share. The benchmark index that measures pricing trend for the equities market, the All Share Index (ASI) of the NGX, closed the week down by 0.46 per cent.

The NGX Banking Index, the sectoral index that measures the performance of the banking sector, had closed lower by 0.48 per cent.

The secondary market trading on Fidelity Bank’s shares underscored investment experts’ general view on the attraction of the bank’s ongoing rights and public offers.

Experts have categorized Fidelity Bank as a most attractive offer, with the bank carrying the “buy” recommendation in most investment research reports.

For instance, at the ongoing offer prices, Fidelity Bank is locking in immediate double-digit gain of between 11 to 18 per cent for investors in the ongoing rights and public offers, a substantial immediate return that’s unique to the bank among other competitors.

Fidelity Bank had started with a N127.1 billion hybrid offer including a rights issue of 3.2 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N9.25 per share and a public offer of 10 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N9.75 per share.

With massive subscriptions and the offers clearly heading to huge oversubscription, the bank has received approvals to issue additional 8.2 billion ordinary shares to absorb potential oversubscription.

Thus, the rights issue size was doubled with additional 3.2 billion shares while 5.0 billion shares were added to the public offer.

Application list for the offers closes on August 12, 2024. A minimum subscription of 1,000 shares or N9, 250 for rights issue and N9, 750 shares for public offer ensures that the generality of the people can benefit from the bank’s ongoing offers.

Experts at Afrinvest West Africa said subscribing to the rights and public offers is a cheaper way as the issuing company bears the cost of transaction compared to the secondary market where the buyer pays transaction charges and levies.

Afrinvest categorised Fidelity Bank as an “opportunity” for the investing public, citing the bank’s impressive historical capital gain and performance records.

Investment experts at Arthur Steven Asset Management said investors in Fidelity Bank’s ongoing rights and public offers stand to reap about 57 per cent in capital gain over a short term period, putting the bank’s shares as valuable inflation-hedging assets.

Analysts at Arthur Steven Asset Management outlined that with a return on equity of 23 per cent, Fidelity Bank has consistently increased dividend payouts for the past three years, rising from 35 kobo per share in 2021 to 40 kobo and 60 kobo in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Analysts noted that the bank has a long-to-deposit ratio of 75 per cent, which underlines Fidelity Bank’s strong commitment to supporting businesses and national economic development. Debt-to-equity ratio stands at 1.34 times, showing that the bank has no significant debt burden and thus easily, aggressive growths translate to higher returns to shareholders.

Fidelity Bank has delivered an average annual capital gain of more than 100 per cent over the past five years and ranked among the elite stocks with the highest corporate governance rating at the Nigerian stock market.

The secondary or stock market performance has been driven by massive expansion in business operations and strong growth in profitability. Fidelity Bank has recorded an average annual profit growth of 64 per cent over the past three years.

The bank has also seen rapid expansion in customer base and assets as total balance sheet size leapt from N2.1 trillion to N6.2 trillion, the sixth largest in the Nigerian banking industry. The balance sheet was driven by a hefty total deposit of more than N4 trillion, equally the sixth biggest in the industry.