For the first time in many years, the stock price of Zenith Bank Plc on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has outpaced that of Guaranty Trust Holdings Plc (GTCO).
According to capital market analysts, the stock price of Zenith Bank in the last 10 years has not outpaced GTCO.
The stock price of Zenith Bank since the beginning of 2022 maintained a positive trajectory, gaining 1.39per cent in 7-day active trading on the bourse to close yesterday at N25.50 from N25.15 it opened for trading.
On the flipside, GTCO has depreciated by 2.1per cent to close yesterday at N25.45 from N26 the stock market price opened this year.
The stock price of GTCO over the years was trading higher than Zenith Bank on the bourse.
According to capital market analysts, the anticipation of a robust dividend for 2021 financial year and fundamentals of Zenith Bank attracted foreign investors, stressing that investors are losing confidence in GTCO over the management’s adoption of Holdings structure, among others.
The vice chairman, Vice president, Mr. David Adnori said investors are losing confidence in GTCO stock over the lender’s legal tussle with Chairman of Innoson Group, Innocent Chukwuma.
According to him: “It should be around 2005/2006 Zenith Bank stock outpaced GTCO. It means investors are losing confidence in the stock of GTCO- It is a very serious matter!
“The reasons are the bank’s court case with Innoson Group and the company is not growing in profit as anticipated by foreign investors.
The Holdings structure should have been advantageous but it is no longer serving as advantage to the bank because of the negative influence of the above issues.”
A capital market analyst, Mr. Rotimi Fakeyejo said the GTCO’s reported weak nine months unaudited result and accounts for September 30, 2021, stressing that investors are anticipating weaker earnings in 2021 financial year.
According to him: “Records in the last five years have shown that Pension Fund Administrators and foreign investors are always skeptical about investing in Holdings structure.”
Thisday