BY MICHAEL EBOH

The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC has intervened in the crisis between shareholders of Premier Breweries Plc and the company, directing the registrar of the company to accept all applications it had earlier rejected.

Mr. Lanre Oloyi, Head of Media, SEC, who confirmed this, said the Commission further directed that the initial investors should be given their full allotment first before any other subscriber can be considered.

He, however, cleared the parties involved of malpractices in the process of allotment, noting that the discrepancies that led to the dispute arose from the delay in submission of applications by agents.

In a related development, issuing house to the offer, Cowry Assets Management Limited, informed investors of the company that it has received a letter from SEC directing the registrar to accept the earlier rejected applications, a development, it said, has helped addressed the issue.

A group of shareholders of the company had in a petition to the SEC recently, accused Premier Breweries Plc and other parties of malpractices and fraud in the just concluded rights issue by Premier Breweries Plc.

As a result, the SEC last week ordered the registrar to submit to it their basis of allotment.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) had also frowned at the conduct of the rights issue and directed that the situation be reversed or the shares will not be listed.

In a meeting held at the NSE, with the registrar and the issuer, it was decided that the registrars cannot reject the returns since the draft (cheques) got to them on the 11th of July, 2011, in line with the procedures for submitting returns as specified in the rights prospectus.

The NSE therefore asked the issuer to do the needful to avoid been penalised.

It would be recalled that Premier Breweries, after numerous efforts to recapitalize, especially with the rejection of a $5 million investment from a group of foreign investors who wanted to restart its operations that has stopped for some years, the company decided to undertake a fund raising exercising via a rights issue of 867.68 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N1.00 per share.

The rights issue was conducted on the basis of seven new shares for every one share previously held by its shareholders as at July 31, 2010.

The company in its prospectus to the offer obtained by Vanguard said the purpose of the rights issue is to reactivate its operations to start production, upgrade existing storage facilities and provide efficient working capital.