Starting from 8:00 a.m. on July 9 (local time), GTCO Holdings will officially list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), becoming the first Nigerian banking group to directly admit all its ordinary shares on the LSE.
This move comes alongside a $100 million capital raise through a public offering of new ordinary shares, which began on July 2 and is being led by Citigroup. The transaction is structured as an accelerated bookbuild, primarily targeting institutional investors in the UK, the US, and other markets. An accelerated bookbuild is a fast-track fundraising method, typically completed within 24 to 48 hours, where shares are offered to institutional investors at a discount to the current market price.
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The proceeds will be used to recapitalize GTBank Nigeria, enabling it to meet the N500 billion minimum capital requirement set by regulators for banks with international licenses. By comparison, Access Holdings and Zenith Bank have already reached or exceeded this threshold.
As part of its capital market restructuring, GTCO plans to terminate its Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) program, which has been in place since 2007, and proceed with a full direct listing on the LSE. Existing GDR holders will have until July 23 to exchange their receipts for new financial instruments called depositary interests, ahead of the official GDR delisting scheduled for July 30. GTCO’s GDRs were initially listed on the LSE in 2007 at a ratio of 1 GDR for 50 GTCO shares. With this move, the group ends its GDR program and transitions to a dual listing, similar to Seplat (NGX:SEPLAT, LSE:SEPL) and Airtel Africa (NGX:AIRTELAFRI, LSE:AAF).
GTCO has clarified that this development will have no impact on its domestic listing. The group’s shares will continue to trade in Nigerian naira on the Main Board of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) under the ticker symbol "GTCO". Once the London listing is effective, shares will be transferable between both markets, subject to certain regulatory conditions.
