The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Republic Bank\u2019s new share price offer of 1 cedi 60 pesewa to HFC Bank shareholders.<\/p>\n
This follows the Commission\u2019s earlier disapproval of Republic Bank\u2019s publication of the offer price in the press without the comission\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n
Republic Bank on April 29th<\/sup>\u00a0of this year published an increase in its share price offer for HFCs shares from 1 cedi 30 to 1 cedi 60 pesewes per share.<\/p>\n The revised offer was at a premium of 65% over the mandatory price and 28% above the current trading price 1 cedi 25 pesewas.<\/p>\n SEC however noted in a letter to the Republic Bank that the move was in violation of the Commission\u2019s code of Takeovers and Mergers as they had not informed them (SEC).<\/p>\n Speaking to Citi Business News, Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission, Adu Anane Antwi said, the initial price of 1 cedi 30 pesewas was an indicative offer which the Republic bank had the right to change until it submitted the final offer price.<\/p>\n \u201cThey came out with a statement that the indicative price was 1.30 Cedis and that their final price was going to be stated in the offer document. So that was only an indicative price, so by the time they bring the offer document, they can change it to any price which is not lower than what regulations asked them to give.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, \u201cthe rules determine the least price you can offer. So they published that the indicative price was 1.30 cedis and later on we saw a publication that they had increased the price to 1.60 cedis\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll that we said was that they should have come to us before publishing that statement. And that is why we wrote to them that if they have anything, they have to do; they should let us get to know of it.\u201d<\/p>\n He added SEC will not sanction Republic bank because they have rectified by complying.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had to apply to us to regularize it and we had no objections to that, so we said that was okay because they have the right to increase it anytime they want until the offer document is received by the SEC.\u201d<\/p>\n By: \u00a0Kwaku Anim Boadu\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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