Guinea Insurance Cancels 57.2 Million Unissued Shares Four Months To CAMA Deadline

Guinea Insurance has cancelled 57.2 million unissued shares capital four months to the December 31st deadline.

The Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA) had changed the treatment of unissued share capital.

It introduced the minimum issued share capital which ends the era where companies retained unissued shares for future allotments and free floated shares.

Section 868 of CAMA 2020 defines “share capital” as “the issued share capital of a company at any given time.”

But on April 16, 2021, Corporate Affairs Commission granted an extension for existing companies to issue all of their unissued share capital in compliance with Section 124 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA) by 31st December 2022.

The insurance company said on Wednesday that, “The 57,200,000 unissued shares of 50 kobo each out of the subsisting 8,000,000,000 share capital of the Company being surplus to the needs of the Company be cancelled and is hereby approved with effect from 16th day of August, 2022.

“The fully issued and allotted share capital of the Company from the date of this cancellation is 7,942,800,000 ordinary shares of 50kobo each.”

The company said the decision was reached at its 64th Annual General Meeting.

SEC had said that any share capital of a Company that will remain unissued after 31st December 2022 shall not be recognised as forming part of the share capital of the Company until the share capital of the Company is fully issued or reduced accordingly.

“The new minimum issued share capital rule is that companies cannot have unissued shares after the June 2021 deadline. Companies (and their officers) who fail to comply by the deadline will be liable to a daily default penalty as prescribed by the Corporate Affairs Commission (“CAC”),” Aluko & Oyebode explained the provision of the Act.