Share price of Skye Bank soars as investors anticipate dividends, better earnings

As at the close of last week’s trading, investors went home with a total of 108,539,456 shares of the company valued at N1.443-billion in 980 deals.

Since the beginning of 2007, the bank’s share price has risen by over 200 percent to N14 per share up from N3.92 kobo per share recorded in the beginning of the year.

This means that any investor who bought 10,000 units of the bank’s shares at N39, 200, her investment would have risen to N135, 000 at the current price of N13.50 kobo per share as at September 21, 2007.

Market watchers believe that the high demand for the bank’s shares helped to influence the price surge, as many investors await the bank’s full year financial result with high hopes.

Market speculators also say that the bank is likely to reward its shareholders with dividend for the 2007 financial year end, after a long pause.

The bank has not paid dividends to shareholders ever since its emergence in 2004 from the merger of the former Prudent Bank, Bond Bank, Reliance Bank, EIB International Bank and Cooperative Bank.

Analysts also believe that with the improvements recorded in the bank’s third quarter result for the period ended June 30, 2007; Skye Bank is on course to reward shareholders with dividends for its 2007 financial year end.

Already in its third quarter, the bank recorded 274 percent increase in profit after tax from N868-million in 2006 to N3.25-billion in 2007. Turnover climbed by 107 percent to N28.8-billion from N13.91-billion in 2006.

A peep into the bank’s share price history shows that, as at January 9, 2007, it sold at N3.73 kobo per share. On February 14, it rose to N6.93 kobo per share, and later dropped to N5.23 kobo per share on February 28, 2007.

On April 30, the price rose to N8.40 kobo per share as investors traded 3,951,544 shares in 128 deals valued at N35-million. On May 24, it rose further to N9.14 kobo per share and closed the month at N10.56 kobo per share.

On June 6, the bank’s shares climbed to N12.70 kobo per share as investors traded 7,593,102 shares in 318 deals valued at N99.6-million. June 29, the bank shares dropped to N11.96 kobo per share.

On July 6, its share price rose marginally to N11.97 kobo per share as investors traded 30,889,592 shares in 245 deals valued at N352-million. On July 30, it rose to N12.87 kobo per share as investors traded 6,375,878 shares in 229 deals valued at N80.5-million.