Investors may lose N74bn as NSE moves to delist 21 firms

Not less than N74.855 billion will be lost by investors in the Nigerian capital market when the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, finally delists about 21 quoted companies from its Daily Official List in the next two months.

If all the 21 companies are finally delisted, they will bring the total number of companies delisted from the NSE due to regulatory action to 38 in four years (2010 – 2014), and would have resulted in massive depletion in the market capitalisation.

Meanwhile, shareholders of the companies marked for delisting have kicked against the move, saying that non-submission of quarterly or yearly financial accounts by quoted companies could be a ploy by those that want to exit the market to force the NSE to delist them on its own, thereby escaping the rigours of delisting process, which they claim is cumbersome.

The Exchange had late last month revealed