Guardian

TO sustain the bullish rally recorded in the market in the past few months, Association of  Avid shareholders (AAS) has urged the regulators authorities to ensure that the primary market segment is well regulated.

The President of the newly inaugurated  association,  Abayomi Obabolu, while addressing capital market stakeholders in Lagos over the weekend at the official launch of the body explained that the for the regulators to ensure that quoted companies that accessed money in the market through Initial Public Offer or rights add value to the proceeds of the offer before approaching the market again.

Obabolu, who expressed the group’s readiness to tackle the rot and other forms of perceived irregularities bedeviling shareholders in the country “The market right now is in the hand of foreign investors and to woo local investors back to the market, they must see better returns on their investment in form of dividend or bonus and for this to be achieved, regulators should monitor and regulate the primary market. Companies that raised money initially should be ask to give account of the money raised before approaching the market for the second time.”

He noted that the Nigerian capital market is on the picking up again after previous years of decline, which led to losses that caused apathy to investors’interest.

According to the president, “The fast rate of recovery in the last couple of months has necessitated proactive measures to ensuring that the past does not repeat itself in the same direction.”

Abayomi who actively operated in the market for more than twenty years, stated that what informed the formation of the association was as a result of the way quoted companies are been managed.

“Companies have been delivering poor results and nobody is blinking eyes with low or no dividend from good companies, high prices in some stocks. Myriads of primary market activities without asking questions on what happened to the initial funds raised. And investors are either not saying anything or not been heard hence, they are being cheated.”