SEC suspends trading on Oando shares

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ordered the suspension of trading on the shares of energy company, Oando Plc, starting from Wednesday till Friday, a notice by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to stockbrokers on Wednesday has shown.
According to the notice signed by Tinuade Awe, general counsel and head of regulation to the exchange, the suspension takes effect from Wednesday.
NSE said the commission has also directed that from Friday October 20, and until further notice, “The exchange should implement a technical suspension in the shares of Oando Plc.”
A full suspension is the halt of trading activities in a listed security for a period while a technical suspension is the interruption of price movement in a listed security for a period so that any dealings in the securities which occur during the period of the suspension will not result in any change in price, which change may have occurred had the suspension not been implemented.
“Thereafter, effective 20 October 2017, investors will be able to trade in Oando Plc’s shares but such trading will not result in any movement in the price of the shares,” Awe said in the letter.
The capital market regulator ordered an investigation into the energy company books in July following a petition was written by some investors over its shareholding structure concerning the energy company's acquisition of ConocoPhilips in 2014, at $1.65 billion.
Oando had in a statement said the petition to SEC by the investors was unsubstantiated, misleading and defamatory claims with respect to various matters that had already received board, shareholder and where required SEC approval.
“The company is fully co-operating with SEC in the discharge of its duties as the capital markets regulator by providing all appropriate clarifications and rebuttals on the matters raised in the said correspondence. Oando will be happy to provide full disclosure of the outcome as soon as the SEC review is completed,” the statement said.
Last month, the House of representative committee on capital market has given SEC two weeks to disclose the results of its investigation into oil firm, a directive the regulator is yet to comply with.
However, in a statement on Wednesday, SEC said its review of the two petitions from Alhaji Dahiru Barau Mangal and Ansbury Incorporated, revealed that