More than two years after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered banks not operating the holding company (HoldCo) structure to divest from non-core banking services, Zenith Bank Plc  has taken steps to divest from its stockbrokerage arm, Zenith Securities Limited.
In its notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, Zenith bank stated that it  has reached an agreement with some investors in respect of the sale and divestment of its investment/equity interest in the company.
It explained  that it is currently processing necessary approvals with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the divestments. “And baring any unforeseen circumstances, “the process will be completed shortly, after which the company’s Particulars of Directors  at the Corporate Affairs Commission(CAC) will be updated accordingly,” said the bank.
Recall that CBN, in 2012, ordered banks that maintained related enterprises other than what was permitted under the new banking structure to take steps to divest their interest completely before May 13, 2012. The policy clearly asks banks to divest from non-core banking service such as insurance, pension funds management, brokerage firms, mortgages banks and other interest. But any bank that intended to keep such interests was given an option to evolve a holding company (Holdco) structure that would hold all the companies, including the bank.
Meanwhile, trading on the stock market last week recorded a turnover of 1.885 billion shares worth N23.733 billion in 24,705 deals as against 1.351 billion shares valued at N14.471 traded the previous week in 14,680 deals.
The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 1.446 billion shares valued at N14.789 billion  and traded in 13,653 deals to account for 76.68 per cent and 62.32 per cent of  the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with a turnover of 172.117 million shares worth 1.091 billion in 1,835 deals. The third place was occupied by Services Industry with 88.966 million shares worth N281.340 million in 912 deals.
Trading in the top three equities FBN Holdings Plc, Access Bank Plc and Transnational Corporation(Transcorp) of Nigeria Plc accounted for 581.406 million shares worth N4.992 billion in 5,534 deals, contributing 30.84 per cent and 21.04 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Also traded during the week were a total of 5,407 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N316,261.62 and executed in 15 deals .This was an improvement when compared with the previous week when a total of 3,651 units valued at N165,346.40 were transacted  in 10 just deals.
The NSE All-Share Index and Market Capitalization depreciated by 5.55 per cent to close on Friday at 38,197.73 and N12.613 trillion respectively.
Similarly, all the i ndices depreciated during the week with the exception of the NSE ASeM Index that closed flat
Thirteen equities appreciated in prices during the week, down from the 19 equities of the preceding week, while 69 equities depreciated in prices as against the 38 equities that suffered similar fate in the preceding week, Over all,118 equities remained unchanged lower than 143 recorded in the preceding week.

Zenith Bank divests from securities arm