In a notice sent to to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Multiverse Resources Plc has claimed ignorance of an insider trade involving one of its significant shareholders Heritage Capital Markets Plc.
Heritage last week crossed shares with ET and F Limited. In its defence, Multiverse stated that it learnt of the transactions after they had occurred. The firm was however yet to issue a notice releasing more details about the new buyer.
The excuse doesn’t hold weight
The excuse given by the firm does not hold weight. The party in question is a capital market operator which should have alerted the company. Heritage having had a previous brush with regulatory authorities and should have been more careful.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, December 21, 2016, suspended the firm along with its directors and sponsored individuals in connection with the unauthorised sale of shares belonging to an investor. SEC also stated that Heritage refused to comply with its directives.
SEC lifted the suspension on Wednesday 1st of February 2017.
Who is behind ET and F Limited?
Multiverse also did not give further details about ET and F Limited, nor the actual number of shares that were crossed. Over 300 million shares were traded last week, representing over 5% of the company’s outstanding shares.
Heritage Capital Markets Limited was incorporated on the 24th November 1997.
Multiverse Mining & Exploration Plc was incorporated as a Private Limited Liability Company, on 20th June 2002. It commenced business on 1st April 2005 and was converted to a Public Limited Liability Company on 18th April 2008. The company’s shares were listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on 8th October, 2008.
Multiverse is engaged in the business of exploring, extracting, prospecting, boring, refining, drilling for, producing, and quarry mining of stones and other extractive solid minerals.
Results for the first quarter ended March 2018, show revenue fell from N2.4 billion in 2017 to N1 billion in 2018. Loss after tax reduced from N174 million in 2017 to N53 million in 2018.
